Site  JJ.  H.  BUI  IGtbrarg 

North  (Carolina  State  Hntoprattg 


Special 

Collections 

QH138 

W36 


Alcovh 


Shelf 


THIS  BOOK  MUST  NOT  BE  TAKEN 
FROM  THE  LIBRARY  BUILDING. 


20M/2-81 


THE 


NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  SELBORNE. 

BY 

THE  REV.   GILBERT  WHITE,  A.M., 

FELLOW  OF    ORIEL    COLLEGE,   OXFORD. 


^J,' 


NEW-YORK: 

HARPER   AND    BROTHERS,  C  L  I  F  F- S  T  RE  E  T. 

1841. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1841,  by 

Harper  &  Brothers, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  Southern  District  of  New-York. 


^\ 


C^nX 


N^ 


ACCOUNT 


OF   THE 


REV.    GILBERT    WHITE. 


"  Gilbert  White  was  the  eldest  son  of  John 
White,  of  Selborne,  Esq.,  and  of  Anne,  the 
daughter  of  Thomas  Holt,  rector  of  Streatham 
in  Surrey.  He  was  born  at  Selborne  on  July  18, 
1720,  and  received  his  school  education  at  Bas- 
ingstoke, under  the  Rev.  Thomas  Warton,  vicar 
of  that  place,  and  father  of  those  two  distin- 
guished literary  characters,  Dr.  Joseph  Warton, 
master  of  Winchester  school,  and  Mr.  Thomas 
Warton,  poetry  professor  at  Oxford.  He  was 
admitted  at  Oriel  College,  Oxford,  in  December, 
1739,  and  took  his  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts 
in  June,  1743.  In  March,  1744,  he  was  elected 
Fellow  of  his  college.  He  became  Master  of 
Arts  in  October,  1746,  and  was  admitted  one  of 
the  senior  proctors  of  the  University  in  April, 
1752.  Being  of  an  unambitious  temper,  and 
strongly  attached  to  the  charms  of  rural  scenery, 
he  early  fixed  his  residence  in  his  native  village, 

flnromr  raiL»£4  fi»  6 

N.  C.  State  College 


Vlll 


where  he  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  life  in  lit- 
erary occupations,  and  especially  in  the  study  of 
Nature.  This  he  followed  with  patient  assiduity, 
and  a  mind  ever  open  to  the  lessons  of  piety  and 
benevolence,  which  such  a  study  is  so  well  cal- 
culated to  afford.  Though  several  occasions  of- 
fered of  settling  upon  a  college  living,  he  could 
never  persuade  himself  to  quit  the  beloved  spot, 
which  was,  indeed,  a  peculiarly  happy  situation 
for  an  observer.  Thus  his  days  passed  tranquil 
and  serene,  with  scarcely  any  other  vicissitudes 
than  those  of  the  seasons,  till  they  closed  at  a 
mature  age  on  June  26,  1793." 


a  «a  .k  i* 


INDEX. 


Page 

Affections  of  Birds      .    .    181 
AylesHolt 39 

Barometers 315 

Bat 49,  86,  116 

Bat,  Large 98 

Birds,  Language  of     .     .  266 

Birds  of  Passage      68,  145,  197 

Black  Act 32 

Blackcap        129 

Botany       257 

Botany  of  Selborne     .    .  259 

Bullfinch 63 

Bunting 57 

Burning  of  Heath   ...  34 

Butcher-bird       ....  77 

Buzzards,  Honey     .    .    .  137 

...       53 

...    240 

55,  63,  166 

...     308 

...     273 

...     294 

236 

176 

21 

277 

280 

284 


Canary  Birds 

Cat  and  Leveret 

Chaffinches     . 

Chinese  Dog 

Cliff,  Fall  of  a    .    .    . 

Coccus 

Condensation  by  Trees 
Congregation  of  Birds 
Cornua  Ammonis  .  . 
Crickets,  Field  .  .  . 
Crickets,  House  .  . 
Crickets,  Mole  .    .    . 

Crossbeaks 164 

Crossbills 48 

Cuckoo  ....  155,  157 
Curious  Fossil  Shell  .  .  21 
Curlew,  Stone   65,  79, 112,  311 


Deer     .    .    . 

Deer,  Moose 
Deer-stealers 
Dogs     .    .    . 
Dove,  Ring    . 
Dove,  Stock 

Eagle-owl 
Echoes      .     . 
Elm,  Broad-leaved 


30,60 
101,  106 
.  33 
.  309 
.  142 
.  139 


.       97 

251,314 

.       17 


96 


Employments    . 

Falco    .... 
Falcon,  Peregrine 
Fieldfares       .     . 
Fish      .... 
Fishes,  Gold  and  Silver 
Flight  of  Birds   . 
Fly-catcher    .    . 
Forest  of  Wolmer 
Forest-fly  .    .    . 
Fossil  Shell  .     . 
Fossil  Wood 
Fowls,  Language  of 
Freestone      .     . 

Game  .... 
Garden  .  .  . 
German  Silktail 
Gipsies  .  .  . 
Goat-sucker  .  . 
Gossamer  .  . 
Grosbeaks      .    . 


Harvest  Mouse  . 
Harvest  Bug 
Hawk  and  Hens 
Hawk,  Sparrow 
Haws  .... 
Hedgehogs  .  . 
Heliotropes  .  . 
Herons  .  .  . 
Himantopus  .  . 
Hoopoes  .  .  . 
House  Cat     .    . 

Idiot  Boy,  Propens: 
Instinct 

Jackdaws 


Lakes   .... 
Lamperns      .     . 
Land-springs 
Lark,  Willow     . 
Lark,  Grasshopper 
Leprosy     .    .    . 


Page 

27 


47 

307 

100, 167 

48 

297 

263 

44,63 

27 
188 

21 
311 
266 

22 


29 
249 

52 
229 

85 
224 

48 


ity 


59 
113 
269 
138 

52 

99 
271 

84 
285 

47 
105,  240 

of  an  234 
302 


81 

37 
74 

207 
76 
67 

246 


X 


INDEX. 


Linnets 56 

Lizard        79, 87 

Lizard,  Green  ....  83 
Loaches     ......      74 

Manor  of  Selborne  .  .  25 
Maps  of  Scotland   .     .    .    136 

Martins 119 

Martins,  House  119,194,291,300 
Martins,  Sand  ....  208 
Martins,  Black  ....     213 

Mice 51 

Migrating  Birds  .  .  88,  169 
Migrations  of  Grallae  .  .  175 
Missel-thrush     ....    222 

Notes  of  Owls  and  Cuckoos  174 
Nuthatch 69 

Oaks 16,  18 

Ornithology  of  Selborne  .     121 

Otter 105 

Owl,  Fern      .    .    .      117,163 

Owls 49 

Owls,  White      ....    184 

Pairing  of  Birds       .     .     .  104 

Peacocks 115 

Pettichaps 305 

Ponds  on  Chalk-hills  .     .  237 

Poor 26 

Population 26 

Pulveratrices      ....  163 

Rain 26,  313 

Raven,  Tree       ....       19 

Redwings 167 

Reed-sparrow     .     .     .     .     161 
Ringousels,    78,  82,  89,  90,  107* 
120,  164,  198 
Rooks 184,312 


Rooks,  White 
Rush  Candles 

Salads  .     .     . 
Salicaria    .     . 
Sandpiper 
Sandstone 


62 
231 

250 
94 
77 
24 


Scopoh's  Annus  Primus  109,162 
Sheep 196 


Pago 

Singing  Birds  .  .  149,  157 
Singing  Birds,  Silence  of     159 

Smother-fly 296 

Snipes 69 

Sociality  of  Brutes  .  .  227 
Soft-billed  Birds     ...     132 

Soils 16 

Spiracula  of  Animals  .  .  60 
Sticklebacks       ....      74 

Streams 15 

Summer  Birds  of  Passage  68 
145,  197 
Summer  Birds,  Return  of  222 
Summer  Evening  Walk  .  91 
Sussex  Downs  ....  195 
Swallows  42,  53,  88,  119,  178 
187,  200,  305 
Swallows,  Torpidity  of  .  244 
Swifts  .     .       98,  213,  256,  292 

Teals 184 

The  Holt 40 

The  Plestor 17 

Titlark 153 

Titmouse       134 

Toads 70, 83 

Tortoise  ....  179,288 
Tortoise,  Land  ....  165 
Turnip-fly 114 

Vernal  and  Autumnal  Cro- 
cus      262 

Village  of  Selborne  .  .  13 
Vipers 72,239 

Water-rats      ....     45,  97 

Water-newt 72 

Water-eft 75 

Weather 331 

Wheatear       57 

Winter  Birds  of  Passage  148 
Wolmer  Pond  ....  37 
Woodcocks  .  .  .  167,  171 
Wood-pigeons    ....     139 

Worms 242 

Wren,  Golden-crowned  .  69 
Wren,  Willow   ....      66 

Yellow-hammer     .    .    .    153 


LIST  OF  ENGRAVINGS. 


Manor  of  Selborne    Title-page 

Oak-tree    ....      Page  18 

Raven 20 

Heath-cock 29 

Red  Deer 31 

Swallow  and  Nest      .    .  43 

Fly-catcher 44 

Water  Rat 45 

Hoopoe 47 

Bat 49 

Ringousel 53 

Chaffinch 55 

Linnet 56 

Wheatear 57 

Harvest  Mouse  ....  59 

Bullfinch   ......  63 

Willow-wren      ....  66 

Grasshopper-lark    ...  67 

Snipe 69 

Toad 70 

Viper 73 

Loach 75 

Lizard 79 

Jackdaw 81 

Heron 84 

Goat-sucker 85 


Hedgehog 

Page  99 

Fieldfare    .    . 

.    . 

Moose   .    .    . 

102 

Otter     .    .    . 

105 

Peacock     .     . 

116 

House-martin 

120 

Whiteihroat  . 

128 

Blackcap   .     . 

.     129 

Redstart    .     . 

130 

Blue  Titmouse 

134 

Sparrow-hawk 

138 

Wood-pigeon 

139 

Cuckoo      .    . 

155 

Woodcock     .    . 

171 

Tortoise    .     . 

179 

Teal      .    .    . 

184 

White  Owl    . 

185 

Rook     .    .    . 

199 

Swift     .     .     . 

213 

Missel-thrush 

223 

House  Cat 

240 

House-cricket 

281 

Himantopus   . 

286 

Gold  and  Silver  Fish  . 

297 

Peregrine  Falcon    . 

307 

Stone  Curlew 

312 

THE 


NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  SELBORNE, 

ARRANGED  FOR  YOUNG  PERSONS. 

PART   I. 

IN   A    SERIES    OF    LETTERS    ADDRESSED    TO 
THOMAS   PENNANT,  Esq. 

LETTER      I. 

The  parish  of  Selborne  lies  in  the  extreme  east- 
ern corner  of  the  county  of  Hampshire,  bordering 
on  the  county  of  Sussex,  and  not  far  from  the 
county  of  Surrey ;  is  about  fifty  miles  southwest 
of  London,  in  latitude  51°,  and  near  midway  be- 
tween the  towns  of  Alton  and  Petersfield.  Being 
very  large  and  extensive,  it  abuts  on  twelve  par- 
ishes, two  of  which  are  in  Sussex,  viz.,  Trotton 
and  Rogate.  If  you  begin  from  the  south  and 
proceed  westward,  the  adjacent  parishes  are  Em- 
shot,  Newton  Valence,  Faringdon,  Harteley,  Mau- 
duit,  Great  Ward-le-ham,  Kingsley,  Hedleigh, 
Bramshot,  Trotton,  Rogate,  Lysse,  and  Greatham. 
The  soils  of  this  district  are  almost  as  various  and 
diversified  as  the  views  and  aspects.  The  high 
part  to  the  southwest  consists  of  a  vast  hill  of  chalk, 

B 

*  N.  C.  State  t> 


14  NATURAL    HISTORY 

rising  three  hundred  feet  above  the  village,  and  is 
divided  into  a  sheepdown,  the  high  wood,  and  a 
long  hanging  wood  called  the  Hanger.  The  cov- 
ert of  this  eminence  is  altogether  beech,  the  most 
lovely  of  all  forest  trees,  whether  we  consider  its 
smooth  rind  or  bark,  its  glossy  foliage,  or  graceful 
pendulous  boughs.  The  down  or  sheepwaik  is  a 
pleasing  park-like  spot  of  about  one  mile  by  half 
that  space,  jutting  out  on  the  verge  of  the  hill-coun- 
try, where  it  begins  to  break  down  into  the  plains, 
and  commanding  a  very  engaging  view,  being  an 
assemblage  of  hill,  dale,  woodlands,  heath,  and  wa- 
ter. The  prospect  is  bounded  to  the  southeast 
and  east  by  the  vast  range  of  mountains  called  the 
Sussex  Downs,  by  Guild-down  near  Guildford,  and 
by  the  Downs  round  Dorking,  and  Ryegate  in  Sur- 
rey, to  the  northeast ;  which  altogether,  with  the 
country  beyond  Alton  and  Farnham,  form  a  noble 
and  extensive  outline. 

At  the  foot  of  this  hill,  one  stage  or  step  from 
the  uplands,  lies  the  village,  which  consists  of  one 
single  straggling  street,  three  quarters  of  a  mile  in 
length,  in  a  sheltered  vale,  and  running  parallel 
with  the  Hanger.  The  houses  are  divided  from 
the  hill  by  the  vein  of  stiff  clay  (good  wheat-land), 
yet  stand  on  a  rock  of  white  stone,  little  in  appear- 
ance removed  from  chalk,  but  seems  so  far  from 
being  calcareous  that  it  endures  extreme  heat.  Yet 
that  the  freestone  still  preserves  somewhat  that  is 
analogous  to  chalk,  is  plain  from  the  beeches,  which 
descend  as  low  as  those  rocks  extend,  and  no  far- 
ther, and  thrive  as  well  on  them,  where  the  ground 
is  steep,  as  on  the  chalks. 

The  cartway  of  the  village  divides  in  a  remark- 


OP    SELBORNE.  15 

able  manner  two  very  incongruous  soils.  To  the 
southwest  a  rank  clay,  which  requires  the  labour 
of  years  to  render  it  mellow ;  while  the  gardens  to 
the  northeast,  and  small  enclosures  behind,  consist 
of  a  warm,  forward,  crumbling  mould,  called  black 
malm,  which  seems  highly  saturated  with  vegetable 
and  animal  manure  ;  and  these  may  perhaps  have 
been  the  original  site  of  the  town,  while  the  woods 
and  coverts  might  have  extended  down  to  the  oppo- 
site bank. 

At  each  end  of  the  village,  which  runs  from 
southeast  to  northwest,  arises  a  small  rivulet ;  that 
at  the  northwest  end  frequently  fails  ;  but  the  other 
is  a  fine  perennial  spring,  little  influenced  by 
drought  or  wet  seasons,  called  Well-head.*  This 
breaks  out  of  some  high  grounds  adjoining  to  Nore 
Hill,  a  noble  chalk  promontory,  remarkable  for 
sending  forth  two  streams  into  two  different  seas. 
The  one  to  the  south  becomes  a  branch  of  the  A  run, 
running  to  Arundel,  and  so  falling  into  the  British 
Channel ;  the  other  to  the  north.  The  Selborne 
stream  makes  one  branch  of  the  Wey  ;  and,  meeting 
the  Black-down  stream  at  Hedleigh,  and  the  Alton 
and  Farnham  stream  at  Titford  Bridge,  swells  into 
a  considerable  river,  navigable  at  Godalming  ;  from 
whence  it  passes  to  Guildford,  and  so  into  the 
Thames  at  Weybridge,  and  thus  at  the  Nore  into 
the  German  Ocean. 

Our  wells,  at  an  average,  run  to  about  sixty-three 

*  This  spring  produced,  September  14,  1781,  after  a  severe 
hot  summer,  and  preceding  dry  spring  and  winter,  nine  gallons 
of  water  in  a  minute,  which  is  five  hundred  and  forty  in  an  hour, 
and  twelve  thousand  nine  hundred  and  sixty,  or  two  hundred  and 
sixteen  hogsheads,  in  twenty-four  hours,  or  one  natural  day.  At 
this  time  many  of  the  wells  failed,  and  all  the  ponds  in  the  vales 
were  dry. 


16  NATURAL   HISTORY 

feet,  and,  when  sunk  to  that  depth,  seldom  fail,  but 
produce  a  fine  limpid  water,  soft  to  the  taste,  and 
much  commended  by  those  who  drink  the  pure  ele- 
ment, but  which  does  not  lather  well  with  soap. 

To  the  northwest,  north,  and  east  of  the  village 
is  a  range  of  fair  enclosures,  consisting  of  what  is 
called  a  white  malm,  a  sort  of  rotten  or  rubble  stone, 
which,  when  turned  up  to  the  frost  and  rain,  mould- 
ers  to  pieces,  and  becomes  manure  to  itself.* 

Still  on  to  the  northeast,  and  a  step  lower,  is  a 
kind  of  white  land,  neither  chalk  nor  clay,  neither 
fit  for  pasture  nor  for  the  plough,  yet  kindly  for 
hops,  which  root  deep  into  the  freestone,  and  have 
their  poles  and  wood  for  charcoal  growing  just  at 
hand.     This  white  soil  produces  the  brightest  hops. 

As  the  parish  still  inclines  down  towards  Wolmer 
Forest,  at  the  juncture  of  the  clays  and  sand  the 
soil  becomes  a  wet,  sandy  loam,  remarkable  for 
timber,  and  infamous  for  roads.  The  oaks  of 
Temple  and  Blackmoor  stand  high  in  the  estima- 
tion  of  purveyors,  and  have  furnished  much  naval 
timber ;  while  the  trees  on  the  freestone  grow 
large,  but  are  what  workmen  call  shaky,  and  so 
brittle  as  often  to  fall  to  pieces  in  sawing.  Beyond 
the  sandy  loam  the  soil  becomes  a  hungry,  lean 
sand  till  it  mingles  with  the  forest,  and  will  produce 
little  without  the  assistance  of  lime  and  turnips. 


LETTER    II. 


In  the  court  of  Norton  farmhouse,  a  manor  farm 
to  the  northwest  of  the  village,  on  the  white  malms, 

*  This  soil  produces  good  wheat  arid  clover. 


OF    SELBORNE.  17 

stood  within  these  twenty  years  a  broad-leaved 
elm  or  wych  hazel,  ulmus  folio  latissimo  scabro  of 
Ray,  which,  though  it  had  lost  a  considerable  lead- 
ing bough  in  the  great  storm  in  the  year  1703,  equal 
to  a  moderate  tree,  yet,  when  felled,  contained 
eight  loads  of  timber ;  and,  being  too  bulky  for  a 
carriage,  was  sawn  off  at  seven  feet  above  the  but, 
where  it  measured  near  eight  feet  in  diameter. 
This  elm  I  mention,  to  show  to  what  a  bulk  plant- 
ed elms  may  attain,  as  this  tree  must  certainly  have 
been  such,  from  its  situation.  In  the  centre  of  the 
village,  and  near  the  church,  is  a  square  piece  of 
ground,  surrounded  by  houses,  and  commonly  call- 
ed the  Plestor.*     In  the  midst  of  this  spot  stood, 

*  Sir  Adam  Gurdon,*  in  conjunction  with  his  wife  Constan- 
tia,  in  the  year  1271,  granted  to  the  prior  and  convent  of  Sel- 
borne  all  his  right  and  claim  to  a  certain  place,  placea,  called  La 
Pleystow,  in  the  village  aforesaid,  M  in  liberam,  puram,  et  perpetuam 
elemosinam."  This  Pleystow,  locus  ludorum,  or  play  place,  is  a 
level  area,  near  the  church,  of  about  forty-four  yards  by  thirty- 
six,  and  is  known  now  by  the  name  of  the  Plestor.  It  continues 
still,  as  it  was  in  old  times,  to  be  the  scene  of  recreation  for  the 
youths  and  children  of  the  neighbourhood,  and  impresses  an 
idea  on  the  mind  that  this  village,  even  in  Saxon  times,  could 
not  be  the  most  abject  of  places,  when  the  inhabitants  thought 
proper  to  assign  so  spacious  a  spot  for  the  sports  and  amuse- 
ments of  its  young  people. 

*  Sir  Adam  Gurdon  was  an  inhabitant  of  Selborne,  and  a  man  of  the 
first  rank  and  property  in  the  parish.  By  Sir  Adam  Gurdon  I  would  be 
understood  to  mean  that  leading  and  accomplished  malcontent  in  the 
Mountfort  faction,  who  distinguished  himself  by  his  daring  conduct  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  III.  He  has  been  noticed  by  all  the  writers  of  English 
history  for  his  bold  disposition  and  disaffected  spirit,  in  that  he  not  only 
figured  during  the  successful  rebellion  of  Leicester,  but  kept  up  the  war 
after  the  defeat  and  death  of  that  baron,  intrenching  himself  in  the  woods  of 
Hampshire,  towards  the  town  of  Farnham.  After  the  battle  of  Evesham, 
in  which  Mountfort  fell,  in  the  year  1265,  Gurdon  might  not  think  it  safe 
to  return  to  his  house  for  fear  of  a  surprise,  but  cautiously  fortified  him- 
Belf  amid  the  forests  and  woodlands  with  which  he  was  so  well  acquaint- 
ed. Prince  Edward,  desirous  of  putting  an  end  to  the  troubles  which 
had  so  long  harassed  the  kingdom,  pursued  the  arch-rebel  into  his  fast- 
nesses, attacked  his  camp,  leaped  over  the  intrenchments,  and,  singling 

B2 


18  NATURAL    HISTORY 

in  old  times,  a  vast  oak,*  with  a  short  squat  body, 
and  huge  horizontal  arms  extending  almost  to  the 


extremity  of  the  area.  This  venerable  tree,  sur- 
rounded with  stone  steps,  and  seats  above  them, 
was  the  delight  of  old  and  young,  and  a  place  of 
much  resort  in  summer  evenings,  where  the  former 
sat  in  grave  debate,  while  the  latter  frolicked  and 

*  This  oak  was  probably  planted  by  the  prior  in  the  year  1271, 
as  an  ornament  to  his  newly-acquired  market-place.  According 
to  this  supposition,  the  oak  was  aged  four  hundred  and  thirty 
years  when  blown  down. — White's  Antiquities  of  Selborne. 

out  Gurdon,  ran  him  down,  wounded  him,  and  took  him  prisoner.  There 
is  not,  perhaps,  in  all  history  a  more  remarkable  instance  of  command  of 
temper  and  magnanimity  than  this  before  us  :  that  a  young  prince,  in  the 
moment  of  victory,  when  he  had  the  fell  adversary  of  the  crown  and  roy- 
al family  at  his  mercy,  should  be  able  to  withhold  his  hand  from  that  ven- 
geance which  the  vanquished  so  well  deserved.  A  cowardly  disposition 
would  have  been  blinded  by  resentment ;  but  this  gallant  heir-apparent 
saw  at  once  a  method  of  converting  a  most  desperate  foe  into  a  lasting 
friend.  He  raised  the  fallen  veteran  from  the  ground,  he  pardoned  him, 
he  admitted  him  into  his  confidence,  and  introduced  him  to  the  queen,  then 
lying  at  Guildford,  that  very  evening.  This  unmerited  and  unexpected 
lenity  melted  the  heart  of  the  rugged  Gurdon  at  once ;  he  became,  in  an 
instant,  a  loyal  and  useful  subject,  trusted  and  employed  in  matters  of 
moment  by  Edward  when  king,  and  confided  in  till  the  day  of  his  death. 
— White's  Antiquities  of  Selborne. 


OF    SELBORNE.  19 

danced  before  them.  Long  might  it  have  stood, 
had  not  the  amazing  tempest  in  1703  overturned  it 
at  once,  to  the  infinite  regret  of  the  inhabitants  and 
the  vicar,  who  bestowed  several  pounds  in  setting 
it  in  its  place  again ;  but  all  his  care  could  not 
avail ;  the  tree  sprouted  for  a  time,  then  withered 
and  died.  This  oak  I  mention,  to  show  to  what  a 
bulk  planted  oaks  also  may  arrive ;  and  planted 
this  tree  must  certainly  have  been,  as  appears  from 
what  is  known  concerning  the  antiquities  of  the 
village. 

On  the  Blackmoor  estate  there  is  a  small  wood 
called  Losel's,  of  a  few  acres,  that  was  lately  fur- 
nished with  a  set  of  oaks  of  a  peculiar  growth  and 
great  value  ;  they  were  tall  and  taper  like  firs,  but 
standing  near  together,  had  very  small  heads — only 
a  little  brush,  without  any  large  limbs.  About 
twenty  years  ago,  the  bridge  at  the  Toy,  near 
Hampton  Court,  being  much  decayed,  some  trees 
were  wanted  for  the  repairs  that  were  fifty  feet  long 
without  bough,  and  would  measure  twelve  inches 
diameter  at  the  little  end.  Twenty  such  trees  did 
a  purveyor  find  in  this  little  wood,  with  this  ad- 
vantage, that  many  of  them  answered  the  descrip- 
tion at  sixty  feet.  These  trees  were  sold  for  207. 
apiece. 

In  the  centre  of  this  grove  there  stood  an  oak, 
which,  though  shapely  and  tall  on  the  whole,  bulged 
out  into  a  large  excrescence  about  the  middle  of  the 
stem.  On  this  a  pair  of  Ravens  had  fixed  their 
residence  for  such  a  series  of  years,  that  the  oak 
was  distinguished  by  the  title  of  the  Raven-tree. 
Many  were  the  attempts  of  the  neighbouring  youths 
to  get  at  this  eyry :  the  difficulty  whetted  their  in- 


20  NATURAL    HISTORY 

clinations,  and  each  was  ambitious  of  surmounting 
the  arduous  task;  but  when  they  arrived  at  the 


swelling,  it  jutted  out  so  in  their  way,  and  was  so 
far  beyond  their  grasp,  that  the  most  daring  lads 
were  awed,  and  acknowledged  the  undertaking  to 
be  too  hazardous.  So  the  ravens  built  on,  nest 
upon  nest,  in  perfect  security,  till  the  fatal  day  ar- 
rived in  which  the  wood  was  to  be  levelled.  It 
was  in  the  month  of  February,  when  those  birds 
usually  sit.  The  saw  was  applied  to  the  but,  the 
wedges  were  inserted  into  the  opening,  the  woods 
echoed  to  the  heavy  blows  of  the  beetle  or  mallet, 
the  tree  nodded  to  its  fall ;  but  still  the  dam  sat  on. 
At  last,  when  it  gave  way,  the  bird  was  flung  from 
her  nest;  and,  though  her  parental  affection  de- 
served a  better  fate,  was  whipped  down  by  the  twigs, 
which  brought  her  dead  to  the  ground. 


OF    SELBORNE.  21 


LETTER     III. 


The  fossil  shells  of  this  district,  and  sorts  of 
stone,  such  as  have  fallen  within  my  observation, 
must  not  be  passed  over  in  silence.  And,  first,  I 
must  mention,  as  a  great  curiosity,  a  specimen  that 
was  ploughed  up  in  the  chalky  fields,  near  the  side 
of  the  Down,  and  given  to  me  for  the  singularity 
of  its  appearance,  which,  to  an  incurious  eye,  seems 
like  a  petrified  fish  of  about  four  inches  long,  the 
cardo  passing  for  a  head  and  mouth.  It  is,  in  re- 
ality, a  bivalve  of  the  Linnsean  genus  of  mytilis, 
and  the  species  of  crista  galli :  called  by  Lister 
rastellum  ;  by  Rumphius,  ostreum  plicatum  minus  ; 
by  D'Argenville,  auris,  porci,  crista  galli ;  and  by 
those  who  make  collections,  cock's  comb.  Though 
I  applied  to  several  such  in  London,  I  never  could 
meet  with  an  entire  specimen ;  nor  could  I  ever 
find  in  books  any  engraving  from  a  perfect  one. 
In  the  superb  museum  at  Leicester  House,  permis- 
sion was  given  me  to  examine  for  this  article  ;  and 
though  I  was  disappointed  as  to  the  fossil,  I  was 
highly  gratified  with  the  sight  of  several  of  the 
shells  themselves,  in  high  preservation.  This  bi- 
valve is  only  known  to  inhabit  the  Indian  Ocean, 
where  it  fixes  itself  to  a  zoophyte  known  by  the 
name  gorgonia. 

Cornua  ammonis  are  very  common  about  this  vil- 
lage. As  we  were  cutting  an  inclining  path  up  the 
Hanger,  the  labourers  found  them  frequently  on 
that  steep,  just  under  the  soil,  in  the  chalk,  and  of 
a  considerable  size.  In  the  lane  above  Well-head, 
in  the  way  to  Emshot,  they  abound  in  the  bank,  in 


22  NATURAL    HISTORY 

a  darkish  sort  of  marl,  and  are  usually  very  small 
and  soft ;  but  in  Clay's  Pond,  a  little  farther  on,  at 
the  end  of  the  pit,  where  the  soil  is  dug  out  for 
manure,  I  have  occasionally  observed  them  of  large 
dimensions,  perhaps  fourteen  or  sixteen  inches  in 
diameter.  But  as  these  did  not  consist  of  firm 
stone,  but  were  formed  of  a  kind  of  terra  lapidosa, 
or  hardened  clay,  as  soon  as  they  were  exposed  to 
the  rains  and  frost  they  mouldered  away.  These 
seemed  as  if  they  were  a  very  recent  production. 
In  the  chalk-pit  at  the  northwest  end  of  the  Hanger, 
large  nautili  are  sometimes  observed. 

In  the  very  thickest  strata  of  our  freestone,  and 
at  considerable  depths,  well-diggers  often  find  large 
scallops  or  pectines,  having  both  shells  deeply  stri- 
ated, and  ridged  and  furrowed  alternately.  They 
are  highly  impregnated  with,  if  not  wholly  com- 
posed of,  the  stone  of  the  quarry. 


LETTER     IV. 

As,  in  my  last  letter,  the  freestone  of  this  place 
has  been  only  mentioned  incidentally,  I  shall  here 
become  more  particular. 

This  stone  is  in  great  request  for  hearth. stones 
and  the  beds  of  ovens,  and  in  lining  of  lime-kilns 
it  turns  to  good  account ;  for  the  workmen  use  san- 
dy loam  instead  of  mortar,  the  sand  of  which  flux- 
es* and  runs  by  the  intense  heat,  and  so  cases 
over  the  whole  face  of  the  kiln  with  a  strong  vitri- 

*  There  may  probably  be  also  in  the  chalk  itself  that  is  burn' 
ed  for  lime  a  proportion  of  sand,  for  few  chalks  are  so  pure  as  to 
have  none. 


OF    SELBORNE.  23 

fied  coat  like  glass,  that  it  is  well  preserved  from 
injuries  of  weather,  and  endures  thirty  or  forty 
years.  When  chiselled  smooth,  it  makes  elegant 
fronts  for  houses,  equal  in  colour  and  grain  to  the 
Bath  stone,  and  superior  in  one  respect,  that,  when 
seasoned,  it  does  not  scale.  Decent  chimney-pie- 
ces are  worked  from  it,  of  much  closer  and  finer 
grain  than  Portland  stone,  and  rooms  are  floored 
with  it ;  but  it  proves  rather  too  soft  for  this  pur- 
pose. It  is  a  freestone,  cutting  in  all  directions, 
yet  has  something  of  a  grain  parallel  with  the  ho- 
rizon, and  therefore  should  not  be  surbedded,  but 
laid  in  the  same  position  that  it  grows  in  the  quar- 
ry.* On  the  ground  abroad  this  firestone  will  not 
succeed  for  pavements,  because,  probably,  some  de- 
gree of  saltness  prevailing  within  it,  the  rain  tears 
the  slabs  to  pieces."]"  Though  this  stone  is  too 
hard  to  be  acted  on  by  vinegar,  yet  both  the  white 
part,  and  even  the  blue  rag,  ferment  strongly  in 
mineral  acids.  Though  the  white  stone  will  not 
bear  wet,  yet  in  every  quarry,  at  intervals,  there 
are  thin  strata  of  blue  rag,  which  resist  rain  and 
frost,  and  are  excellent  for  pitching  of  stables, 
paths,  and  courts,  and  for  building  of  dry  walls 
against  banks  ;  a  valuable  species  of  fencing,  much 
in  use  in  this  village,  and  for  mending  of  roads. 
This  rag  is  rugged  and  stubborn,  and  will  not  hew 
to  a  smooth  face,  but  is  very  durable  ;  yet,  as  these 

*  To  surbed  stone  is  to  set  it  edgewise,  contrary  to  the  pos- 
ture it  had  in  the  quarry,  says  Dr.  Plot,  Oxfordish.,  p.  77.  But 
surbedding  does  not  succeed  in  our  dry  walls ;  neither  do  we 
use  it  so  in  ovens,  though  he  says  it  is  best  for  Teynton  stone. 

t  "Firestone  is  full  of  salts,  and  has  no  sulphur:  must  be 
close-grained,  and  have  no  interstices.  Nothing  supports  fire 
like  salts;  saltstone  perishes  exposed  to  wet  and  frost."  — 
Plot's  Staff.,  p.  152. 


24  NATURAL   HISTORY 

strata  are  shallow  and  lie  deep,  large  quantities 
cannot  be  procured  but  at  considerable  expense. 
Among  the  blue  rags  turn  up  some  blocks  tinged 
with  a  stain  of  yellow  or  rust  colour,  which  seem 
to  be  nearly  as  lasting  as  the  blue  ;  and  every  now 
and  then  balls  of  a  friable  substance,  like  rust  of 
iron,  called  rust-balls. 

In  Wolmer  Forest  I  see  but  one  sort  of  stone, 
called  by  the  workmen  sand  or  forest  stone.  This 
is  generally  of  the  colour  of  rusty  iron,  and  might 
probably  be  worked  as  iron  ore  ;  it  is  very  hard  and 
heavy,  of  a  firm,  compact  texture,  and  composed 
of  a  small,  roundish,  crystalline  grit,  cemented  to- 
gether by  a  brown,  terrene,  ferruginous  matter ; 
will  not  cut  without  difficulty,  nor  easily  strike  fire 
with  steel.  Being  often  found  in  broad  flat  pieces, 
it  makes  good  pavement  for  paths  about  houses, 
never  becoming  slippery  in  frost  or  rain  ;  is  excel- 
lent for  dry  walls,  and  is  sometimes  used  in  build- 
ings. In  many  parts  of  that  waste  it  lies  scatter- 
ed on  the  surface  of  the  ground  ;  but  it  is  dug  on 
Weaver's  Down,  a  vast  hill  on  the  eastern  verge 
of  that  forest,  where  the  pits  are  shallow  and  the 
stratum  thin.     This  stone  is  imperishable. 

From  a  notion  of  rendering  their  work  the  more 
elegant  and  giving  it  a  finish,  masons  chip  this 
stone  into  small  fragments  about  the  size  of  the 
head  of  a  large  nail,  and  then  stick  the  pieces  into 
the  wet  mortar  along  the  joints  of  their  freestone 
walls.  This  embellishment  carries  an  odd  appear- 
ance, and  has  occasioned  strangers  sometimes  to 
ask  us  pleasantly  "  whether  we  fastened  our  walls 
•  together  with  tenpenny  nails." 


f&twr  umsr 


OF    SELBORNE.  25 


LETTER     V. 


Among  the  singularities  of  this  place,  the  two 
rocky  hollow  lanes,  the  one  to  Alton  and  the  other 
to  the  forest,  deserve  our  attention.  These  roads, 
running  through  the  malm  lands,  are,  by  the  traffic 
of  ages  and  the  fretting  of  water,  worn  down  through 
the  first  stratum  of  our  freestone,  and  partly  through 
the  second,  so  that  they  look  more  like  watercour- 
ses than  roads,  and  are  bedded  with  naked  rag  for 
furlongs  together.  In  many  places  they  are  redu- 
ced sixteen  or  eighteen  feet  beneath  the  level  of 
the  fields,  and  after  floods  and  in  frosts  exhibit  very 
grotesque  and  wild  appearances,  from  the  tangled 
roots  that  are  twisted  among  the  strata,  and  from 
the  torrents  rushing  down  their  broken  sides,  and 
especially  when  those  cascades  are  frozen  into  ici- 
cles, hanging  in  all  the  fanciful  shapes  of  frostwork. 
These  rugged,  gloomy  scenes  affright  the  ladies 
when  they  peep  down  into  them  from  the  paths 
above,  and  make  timid  horsemen  shudder  while 
they  ride  along  them ;  but  they  delight  the  natu- 
ralist with  their  various  botany,  and  particularly 
with  their  curious  filices,  with  which  they  abound. 

The  manor  of  Selborne,  was  it  strictly  looked 
after,  with  all  its  kindly  aspects  and  all  its  sloping 
coverts,  would  swarm  with  game  ;  even  now,  hares, 
partridges,  and  pheasants  abound,  and  in  old  days 
woodcocks  were  as  plentiful.  There  are  few  quails, 
because  they  more  affect  open  fields  than  enclo- 
sures.    After  harvest,  some  few  landrails  are  seen. 

The  parish  of  Selborne,  by  taking  in  so  much  of 
the  forest,  is  a  vast  district.     Those  who  tread  the 

C 


26  NATURAL    HISTORY 

bounds  are  employed  part  of  three  days  in  the  bu- 
siness, and  are  of  opinion  that  the  outline,  in  all  its 
curves  and  indentings,  does  not  comprise  less  than 
thirty  miles. 

The  village  stands  in  a  sheltered  spot,  secured 
by  the  Hanger  from  the  strong  westerly  winds. 
The  air  is  soft,  but  rather  moist  from  the  effluvia 
of  so  many  trees,  yet  perfectly  healthy  and  free 
from  agues. 

The  quantity  of  rain  that  falls  on  it  is  very  con- 
siderable, as  may  be  supposed  in  so  woody  and 
mountainous  a  district.  As  my  experience  in 
measuring  the  water  is  but  of  short  date,  I  am  not 
qualified  to  give  the  mean  quantity.*  I  only  know 
that 

From  May  1,  1779,  to  the  end  of  the  year,  there  fell 

From  Jan.  1,  1780,  to  Jan.  1,  1781 

From  Jan.  1,  1781,  to  Jan.  1,  1782 

From  Jan.  1,  1782,  to  Jan.  1,  1783 

From  Jan.  1,  1783,  to  Jan.  1,  1784 

From  Jan.  1,  1784,  to  Jan.  1,  1785 

From  Jan.  1,  1785,  to  Jan.  1,  1786 

From  Jan.  1,  1786,  to  Jan.  1,  1787 

The  village  of  Selborne  and  large  hamlet  of 
Oakhanger,  with  the  single  farms  and  many  scat- 
tered houses  along  the  verge  of  the  forest,  contain 
upward  of  six  hundred  and  seventy  inhabitants. 

We  abound  with  poor,  many  of  whom  are  sober 

*  A  very  intelligent  gentleman  assures  me  (and  he  speaks 
from  upward  of  forty  years'  experience),  that  the  mean  rain  of 
any  place  cannot  be  ascertained  till  a  person  has  measured  it  for 
a  very  long  period.  "  If  I  had  only  measured  the  rain,"  says 
he,  "  for  the  first  four  years,  from  1740  to  1743,  I  should  have 
said  the  mean  rain  at  Lyndon  was  16^  inches  for  the  year:  if 
from  1740  to  1750,  18£  inches.  The  mean  rain  before  1763  was 
20|  ;  from  1763  and  since,  25*  ;  from  1770  to  1780,  26.  If  only 
1773,  1774,  and  1775  had  been  measured,  Lyndon  mean  rain 
would  have  been  called 32  inches,  increasing  from  166  to  32." 


Inch. 

Hon 

28 

37 

27 

32 

30 

71 

50 

26 

33 

71 

33 

80 

31 

55 

39 

57 

OF    SELBORNE.  27 

and  industrious,  and  live  comfortably,  in  good  stone 
or  brick  cottages,  which  are  glazed,  and  have 
chambers  above  stairs :  mud  buildings  we  have 
none.  Besides  the  employment  from  husbandry, 
the  men  work  in  hop-gardens,  of  which  we  have 
many,  and  fell  and  bark  timber.  In  the  spring  and 
summer  the  women  weed  the  corn,  and  enjoy  a 
second  harvest  in  September  by  hop-picking.  For- 
merly, in  the  dead  months,  they  availed  themselves 
greatly  by  spinning  wool  for  making  of  barragons, 
a  genteel  corded  stuff  much  in  vogue  at  that  time 
for  summer  wear,  and  chiefly  manufactured  at  Al- 
ton, a  neighbouring  town,  by  some  of  the  people 
called  Quakers.  The  inhabitants  enjoy  a  good 
share  of  health  and  longevity,  and  the  parish 
swarms  with  children. 


LETTER     VI. 

Should  I  omit  to  describe  with  some  exactness 
the  forest  of  Wolmer,  of  which  three  fifths,  perhaps, 
lie  in  this  parish,  my  account  of  Selborne  would  be 
very  imperfect,  as  it  is  a  district  abounding  with 
many  curious  productions,  both  animal  and  vege- 
table, and  has  often  afforded  me  much  entertain- 
ment, both  as  a  sportsman  and  as  a  naturalist. 

The  royal  forest  of  Wolmer  is  a  tract  of  land  of 
about  seven  miles  in  length  by  two  and  a  half  in 
breadth,  running  nearly  from  north  to  south,  and  is 
abutted  on,  to  begin  to  the  south,  and  so  to  proceed 
eastward,  by  the  parishes  of  Greatham,  Lysse, 
Rogate,  and  Trotton,  in  the  county  of  Sussex,  by 
Bramshot,  Hedleigh,  and  Kingsley.  This  royalty 
consists  entirely  of  sand,  covered  with  heath  and 


28  NATURAL   HISTORY 

fern,  but  is  somewhat  diversified  with  hills  and 
dales,  without  having  one  standing  tree  in  the  whole 
extent.  In  the  bottoms,  where  the  waters  stagnate, 
are  many  bogs,  which  formerly  abounded  with 
subterraneous  trees,  though  Dr.  Plot  says  posi- 
tively* that  "  there  never  were  any  fallen  trees 
hidden  in  the  mosses  of  the  southern  counties." 
But  he  was  mistaken ;  for  I  myself  have  seen  cot- 
tages on  the  verge  of  this  wild  district,  whose  tim- 
bers consisted  of  a  black  hard  wood,  looking  like 
oak,  which  the  owners  assured  me  they  procured 
from  the  bogs  by  probing  the  soil  with  spits  or  some 
such  instruments  ;  but  the  peat  is  so  much  cut  out, 
and  the  moors  have  been  so  well  examined,  that 
none  has  been  found  of  late.f  Besides  the  oak,  I 
have  also  been  shown  pieces  of  fossil-wood,  of  a 

*  See  his  Hist,  of  Staffordshire. 

t  Old  people  have  assured  me  that,  on  a  winter's  morning, 
they  have  discovered  these  trees  in  the  bogs  by  the  hoar-frost, 
which  lay  longer  over  the  space  where  they  were  concealed 
than  on  the  surrounding  morass.  Nor  does  this  seem  to  be  a  fan- 
ciful notion,  but  consistent  with  true  philosopy.  Dr.  Hales 
saith,  "  That  the  warmth  of  the  earth  at  some  depth  under  ground 
has  an  influence  in  promoting  a  thaw,  as  well  as  the  change  of 
the  weather  from  a  freezing  to  a  thawing  state,  is  manifest  from 
this  observation,  viz. :  Nov.  29,  1731,  a  little  snow  having  fallen 
in  the  night,  it  was,  by  eleven  the  next  morning,  mostly  melted 
away  on  the  surface  of  the  earth,  except  in  several  places  in 
Bushy  Park,  where  there  were  drains  dug  and  covered  with  earth, 
on  which  the  snow  continued  to  lie,  whether  those  drains  were 
full  of  water  or  dry,  as  also  where  elm-pipes  lay  under  ground  ;  a 
plain  proof,  this,  that  those  drains  intercepted  the  warmth  of  the 
earth  from  ascending  from  greater  depths  below  them  ;  for  the 
snow  lay  where  the  drain  had  more  than  fc  ir  feet  depth  of  earth 
over  it.  It  continued  also  to  lie  on  thatch,  tiles,  and  the  tops  of 
walls." — See  Hale's  Hmmastatics,  p.  360.  Quere,  Might  not 
such  observations  be  reduced  to  domestic  use,  by  promoting  the 
discovery  of  old  obliterated  drains  and  wells  about  houses  ;  and, 
in  Roman  stations  and  camps,  lead  to  the  finding  of  pavements, 
baths,  and  graves,  and  other  hidden  relics  of  curious  antiquity  ? 


OF    SELEORXE. 


29 


paler  colour  and  softer  nature,  which  the  inhabitants 
called  fir  ;  but,  upon  nice  examination  and  trial  by 
fire,  I  could  discover  nothing  resinous  in  them,  and 
therefore  rather  supposed  that  they  were  parts  of  a 
willow  or  alder,  or  some  such  aquatic  tree. 

This  lonely  domain  is  a  very  agreeable  haunt  for 
many  sorts  of  wild  fowls,  which  not  only  frequent 
it  in  the  winter,  but  build  their  nests  there  in  the 
summer,  such  as  lapwings,  snipes,  wild  ducks,  and, 
as  I  have  discovered  within  these  few  years,  teals. 
Partridges  in  vast  plenty  are  bred  in  good  seasons 
on  the  verge  of  this  forest,  into  which  they  love  to 
make  excursions ;  and  in  particular,  in  the  dry 
summer  of  1740  and  1741,  and  some  years  after, 
they  swarmed  to  such  a  degree,  that  parties  of  un- 
reasonable sportsmen  killed  twenty  and  sometimes 
thirty  brace  in  a  day. 

But  there  was  a  nobler  species  of  game  in  this 
forest,  now  extinct,  which  I  have  heard  old  people 
say  abounded  much  before  shooting  flying  became 
so  common,  and  that  was  the  Heath-cock,  or  Black 


C  2 


30  NATURAL   HISTORY 

Game.  When  I  was  a  little  boy,  I  recollect  one 
coming  now  and  then  to  my  father's  table.  The  last 
pack  remembered  was  killed  about  thirty-five  years 
ago ;  and  within  these  ten  years  one  solitary  gray 
hen  was  sprung  by  some  beagles  in  beating  for  a 
hare.  The  sportsman  cried  out,  "A  hen  pheasant !" 
but  a  gentleman  present,  who  had  often  seen  black 
game  in  the  north  of  England,  assured  me  that  it 
was  a  gray  hen. 

Nor  does  the  loss  of  our  black  game  prove  the 
only  gap  in  the  Fauna  Selborniensis,  for  another 
beautiful  link  in  the  chain  of  beings  is  wanting  :  I 
mean  the  Red  Deer,  which,  towards  the  beginning 
of  this  century,  amounted  to  about  five  hundred 
head,  and  made  a  stately  appearance.  There  is 
an  old  keeper  now  alive,  named  Adams,  whose 
great-grandfather  (mentioned  in  a  perambulation 
taken  in  1635),  grandfather,  father,  and  self  en- 
joyed the  head-keepership  of  Wolmer  Forest  in 
succession  for  more  than  a  hundred  years.  This 
person  assures  me  that  his  father  has  often  told  him 
that  Queen  Anne,  as  she  was  journeying  on  the 
Portsmouth  road,  did  not  think  the  forest  of  Wol- 
mer beneath  her  royal  regard.  For  she  came  out 
of  the  great  road  at  Lippock,  which  is  just  by,  and, 
reposing  herself  on  a  bank  smoothed  for  that  pur- 
pose, lying  about  half  a  mile  to  the  east  of  Wolmer 
Pond,  and  still  called  Queen's  Bank,  saw  with  great 
complacency  and  satisfaction  the  whole  herd  of 
red  deer  brought  by  the  keepers  along  the  vale  be- 
fore her,  consisting  then  of  about  five  hundred 
head.  A  sight,  this,  worthy  the  attention  of  the 
greatest  sovereign !  But  he  farther  adds,  that,  by 
means  of  the  Waltham  blacks,  or,  to  use  his  own 


OF    SELBORNE. 


31 


expression,  as  soon  as  they  began  blacking,  they 
were  reduced  to  about  fifty  head,  and  so  continued 


fC^X^' 


decreasing  till  the  time  of  the  late  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland. It  is  now  more  than  thirty  years  ago 
that  his  highness  sent  down  a  huntsman  and  six 
yeomen  prickers,  in  scarlet  jackets  laced  with  gold, 
attended  by  the  stag-hounds,  ordering  them  to  take 
every  deer  in  this  forest  alive,  and  to  convey  them 
in  carts  to  Windsor.  In  the  course  of  the  summer 
they  caught  every  stag,  some  of  which  showed  ex- 


32  NATURAL   HISTORY 

traordinary  diversion ;  but  in  the  following  winter, 
when  the  hinds  were  also  carried  off,  such  fine 
chases  were  exhibited  as  served  the  country  people 
for  matter  of  talk  and  wonder  for  years  afterward. 
I  saw  myself  one  of  the  yeomen  prickers  single 
out  a  stag  from  the  herd,  and  must  confess  that  it 
was  the  most  curious  feat  of  activity  I  ever  beheld, 
superior  to  anything  in  Mr.  Astley's  riding-school. 
The  exertions  made  by  the  horse  and  deer  much 
exceeded  all  my  expectations,  though  the  former 
greatly  excelled  the  latter  in  speed.  When  the 
devoted  deer  was  separated  from  his  companions, 
they  gave  him,  by  their  watches,  law,  as  they  call- 
ed it,  for  twenty  minutes ;  when,  sounding  their 
horns,  the  stop-dogs  were  permitted  to  pursue,  and 
a  most  gallant  scene  ensued. 


LETTER    VII. 

Though  large  herds  of  deer  do  much  harm  to  the 
neighbourhood,  yet  the  injury  to  the  morals  of  the 
people  is  of  more  moment  than  the  loss  of  their 
crops.  The  temptation  is  irresistible,  for  most  men 
are  sportsmen  by  constitution ;  and  there  is  such 
an  inherent  spirit  for  hunting  in  human  nature  as 
scarce  any  inhibitions  can  restrain.  Hence,  to- 
wards the  beginning  of  this  century,  all  this  country 
was  wild  about  deer-stealing.  The  Waltham  blacks 
at  length  committed  such  enormities,  that  govern- 
ment was  forced  to  interfere  with  that  severe  and 
sanguinary  act  called  the  Black  Act,*  which  now 
*  Statute  9  Geo.  I.,  c.  22. 


OF    SELBORNE.  33 

comprehends  more  felonies  than  any  law  that  ever 
was  framed  before  ;  and,  therefore,  a  late  Bishop 
of  Winchester,  when  urged  to  re-stock  Waltham 
Chase,*  refused,  from  a  motive  worthy  of  a  prelate, 
replying,  "It  had  done  mischief  enough  already." 

Our  old  race  of  deer-stealers  are  hardly  extinct 
yet.  It  was  but  a  little  while  ago  that,  over  their 
ale,  they  used  to  recount  the  exploits  of  their  youth  : 
such  as  watching  the  hind  to  her  lair,  and,  when 
the  calf  was  found,  paring  its  feet  with  a  penknife 
to  the  quick,  to  prevent  its  escape  till  it  was  large 
and  fat  enough  to  be  killed  ;  the  shooting  at  one  of 
their  neighbours  with  a  bullet  in  a  turnip-field  by 
moonshine,  mistaking  him  for  a  deer ;  and  the 
losing  a  dog  in  the  following  extraordinary  manner : 
Some  fellows,  suspecting  that  a  calf  was  deposited 
in  a  certain  spot  of  thick  fern,  went  with  a  lurcher 
to  surprise  it ;  when  the  parent  hind  rushed  out  of 
the  brake,  and,  taking  a  vast  spring,  with  all  her 
feet  close  together,  pitched  upon  the  neck  of  the 
dog,  and  broke  it  short  in  two. 

Another  temptation  to  idleness  and  sporting  was 
a  number  of  rabbits,  which  possessed  all  the  hillocks 
and  dry  places  ;  but  these  being  inconvenient  to 
the  huntsman  on  account  of  their  burrows,  when 
they  came  to  take  away  the  deer,  they  permitted 
the  country  people  to  destroy  them  all. 

Such  forests  and  wastes,  when  their  allurements 
to  irregularities  are  removed,  are  of  considerable 
service  to  neighbourhoods  that  verge  upon  them, 
by  furnishing  them  with  peat  and  turf  for  their 
firing  ;  with  fuel  for  the  burning  their  lime,  and 

*  This  chase  remains  unstocked  to  this  day :  the  bishop  was 
Dr.  Hoadley. 


34  NATURAL    HISTORY 

with  ashes  for  their  grasses ;  and  by  maintaining 
their  geese  and  their  stock  of  young  cattle  at  little 
or  no  expense. 

The  manor  farm  of  the  parish  of  Greatham  has 
an  admitted  claim,  I  see  (by  an  old  record  taken 
from  the  Tower  of  London),  of  turning  all  live- 
stock on  the  forest  at  proper  seasons,  bidentibus 
exceptis.*  The  reason,  I  presume,  why  sheepf  are 
excluded  is,  because,  being  such  close  grazers,  they 
would  pick  out  all  the  finest  grasses,  and  hinder  the 
deer  from  thriving. 

Though  (by  statute  4  and  5  Wm.  and  Mary,  c. 
23)  "  to  burn  on  any  waste,  between  Candlemas 
and  Midsummer,  any  grig,  ling,  heath  and  furze, 
goss  or  fern,  is  punishable  with  confinement  in  the 
House  of  Correction,"  &c,  yet  in  this  forest,  about 
March  or  April,  according  to  the  dryness  of  the 
season,  such  vast  heath-fires  are  lighted  up  that 
they  often  get  to  a  masterless  head,  and,  catching 
the  hedges,  have  sometimes  been  communicated  to 
the  underwoods,  woods,  and  coppices,  where  great 
damage  has  ensued.  The  plea  for  these  burnings 
is,  that  when  the  old  coat  of  heath,  &c,  is  consu- 
med, young  will  sprout  up,  and  afford  much  tender 
browse  for  cattle ;  but  where  there  is  large  old  furze, 
the  fire,  following  the  roots,  consumes  the  very 
ground,  so  that  for  hundreds  of  acres  nothing  is  to 
be  seen  but  smother  and  desolation,  the  whole  cir- 
cuit round  looking  like  the  cinders  of  a  volcano  ;  and 
the  soil  being  quite  exhausted,  no  traces  of  vegeta- 


*  For  this  privilege  the  owner  of  that  estate  used  to  pay  to  the 
king  annually  seven  bushels  of  oats. 

t  In  the  Holt,  where  a  full  stock  of  fallow-deer  has  been  kept 
up  till  lately,  no  sheep  are  admitted  to  this  day. 


OF    SELBORNE.  35 

tion  are  to  be  found  for  years.  These  conflagra- 
tions, as  they  take  place  usually  with  a  northeast  or 
east  wind,  much  annoy  this  village  with  their  smoke, 
and  often  alarm  the  country  ;  and  once  in  particu- 
lar I  remember,  that  a  gentleman  who  lives  beyond 
Andover,  coming  to  my  house,  when  he  got  on  the 
Downs  between  that  town  and  Winchester,  at  twen- 
ty-five miles'  distance,  was  surprised  much  with 
smoke  and  a  hot  smell  of  fire,  and  concluded  that 
Alresford  was  in  flames  ;  but,  when  he  came  to  that 
town,  he  then  had  apprehensions  for  the  next  vil- 
lage, and  so  on  to  the  end  of  his  journey. 

On  two  of  the  most  conspicuous  eminences  of 
this  forest  stand  two  arbours  or  bowers,  made  of 
the  boughs  of  oaks,  the  one  called  Waldon  Lodge, 
the  other  Brimstone  Lodge  :  these  the  keepers  re- 
new annually  on  the  feast  of  St.  Barnabas,  taking 
the  old  materials  for  a  perquisite.  The  farm  called 
Blackmoor,  in  this  parish,  is  obliged  to  find  the 
posts  and  brushwood  for  the  former,  while  the 
farms  at  Greatham,  in  rotation,  furnish  for  the 
latter,  and  are  all  enjoined  to  cut  and  deliver  the 
materials  at  the  spot.  This  custom  I  mention  be- 
cause I  look  upon  it  to  be  of  very  remote  antiquity. 


LETTER     VIII. 

On  the  verge  of  the  forest,  as  it  is  now  circum- 
scribed, are  three  considerable  lakes  :  two  in  Oak- 
hanger,  of  which  I  have  nothing  particular  to  say, 
and  one  called  Bin's  or  Bean's  Pond,  which  is  wor- 
thy the  attention  of  a  naturalist  or  a  sportsman ; 
for,  being  crowded  at  the  upper  end  with  willows 


36  NATURAL  HISTORY 

and  with  the  carex  cespitosa,*  it  affords  a  safe  and 
pleasant  shelter  to  wild  ducks,  teals,  snipes,  &c. 
In  the  winter  this  covert  is  also  frequented  by  foxes, 
and  sometimes  by  pheasants  ;  and  the  bogs  produce 
many  curious  plants. 

By  a  perambulation  of  Wolmer  Forest  and  the 
Holt,  made  in  1635,  and  in  the  eleventh  year  of 
Charles  the  First  (which  now  lies  before  me),  it 
appears  that  the  limits  of  the  former  are  much  cir- 
cumscribed. For,  to  say  nothing  of  the  farther 
side,  with  which  I  am  not  so  well  acquainted,  the 
bounds  on  this  side,  in  old  times,  came  into  Bins- 
wood,  and  extended  to  the  ditch  of  Ward-le-ham 
Park,  in  which  stands  the  curious  mount  called 
King  John's  Hill  and  Lodge  Hill,  and  to  the  verge 
of  Hartley  Mauduit,  called  Mauduit-hatch  ;  com- 
prehending also  Shortheath,  Oakhanger,  and  Oak- 
woods  ;  a  large  district,  now  private  property, 
though  once  belonging  to  the  royal  domain. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  term  purlieu  is  never 
once  mentioned  in  this  long  roll  of  parchment.  It 
contains,  besides  the  perambulation,  a  rough  esti- 
mate of  the  value  of  the  timbers,  which  were  con- 
siderable, growing  at  that  time  in  the  district  of  the 
Holt ;  and  enumerates  the  officers,  superior  and 
inferior,  of  those  joint  forests,  for  the  time  being, 
and  their  ostensible  fees  and  perquisites.  In  those 
days,  as  at  present,  there  were  hardly  any  trees  in 
Wolmer  Forest. 


*  I  mean  that  sort  which,  rising  into  tall  hassocks,  is  called 
by  the  foresters  torrets  ;  a  corruption,  I  suppose,  of  turrets. 

Note. — In  the  beginning  of  the  summer,  1787,  the  royal  for- 
ests of  Wolmer  and  Holt  were  measured  by  persons  sent  down 
by  government. 


OF    SELBORNE.  37 

Within  the  present  limits  of  the  forest  are  three 
considerable  lakes,  Hogmer,  Cranmer,  and  Wolmer, 
all  of  which  are  stocked  with  carp,  tench,  eels,  and 
perch  ;  but  the  fish  do  not  thrive  well,  because  the 
water  is  hungry,  and  the  bottoms  are  a  naked  sand. 

A  circumstance  respecting  these  ponds,  though 
by  no  means  peculiar  to  them,  I  cannot  pass  over 
in  silence ;  and  that  is,  that  instinct  by  which  in 
summer  all  the  kine,  whether  oxen,  cows,  calves, 
or  heifers,  retire  constantly  to  the  water  during  the 
hotter  hours  ;  where,  being  more  exempt  from  flies, 
and  inhaling  the  coolness  of  that  element,  some 
belly-deep,  and  some  only  to  mid-leg,  they  rumi- 
nate and  solace  themselves  from  about  ten  in  the 
morning  till  four  in  the  afternoon,  and  then  return 
to  their  feeding.  During  this  great  proportion  of 
the  day  they  drop  much  dung,  in  which  insects  nes- 
tle, and  so  supply  food  for  the  fish,  which  would  be 
poorly  subsisted  but  for  this  contingency.  Thus 
Nature,  who  is  a  great  economist,  converts  the  rec- 
reation of  one  animal  to  the  support  of  another ! 
Thomson,  who  was  a  nice  observer  of  natural  oc- 
currences, did  not  let  this  pleasing  circumstance 
escape  him.     He  says  in  his  Summer : 

"  A  various  group  the  herds  and  flocks  compose : 

on  the  grassy  bank 

Some  ruminating  lie,  while  others  stand, 
Half  in  the  flood,  and,  often  bending,  sip 
The  circling  surface." 

Wolmer  Pond,  so  called,  I  suppose,  for  eminence 
sake,  is  a  vast  lake  for  this  part  of  the  world,  con- 
taining,  in  its  whole  circumference,  two  thousand 
six  hundred  and  forty-six  yards,  or  very  near  a  mile 
and  a  half.     The  length  of  the  northwest  and  op- 

D 


38  NATURAL   HISTORY 

posite  side  is  about  seven  hundred  and  four  yards, 
and  the  breadth  of  the  southwest  end  about  four 
hundred  and  fifty-six  yards.  This  measurement, 
which  I  caused  to  be  made  with  good  exactness, 
gives  an  area  of  about  sixty.six  acres,  exclusive  of 
a  large  irregular  arm  at  the  northeast  corner,  which 
we  did  not  take  into  the  reckoning. 

On  the  face  of  this  expanse  of  waters,  and  per- 
fectly secure  from  fowlers,  lie  all  day  long,  in  the 
winter  season,  vast  flocks  of  ducks,  teals,  and  wid- 
geons, of  various  denominations,  where  they  preen, 
and  solace  and  rest  themselves  till  towards  sunset, 
when  they  issue  forth  in  little  parties  (for  in  their 
natural  state  they  are  all  birds  of  the  night)  to  feed 
in  the  brooks  and  meadows,  returning  again  with 
the  dawn  of  the  morning.  Had  this  lake  an  arm 
or  two  more,  and  were  it  planted  round  with  thick 
covert  (for  now  it  is  perfectly  naked),  it  might 
make  a  valuable  decoy. 

Yet  neither  its  extent,  nor  the  clearness  of  its 
water,  nor  the  resort  of  various  and  curious  fowls, 
nor  its  picturesque  groups  of  cattle,  can  render  this 
mere  so  remarkable  as  the  great  quantity  of  coins 
that  were  found  in  its  bed  about  forty  years  ago.* 

*  Old  people  remember  to  have  heard  their  fathers  and  grand- 
fathers say,  that  in  dry  summers  and  windy  weather,  pieces  of 
money  were  sometimes  found  round  the  verge  of  Wolmer  Pond  ; 
and  tradition  had  inspired  the  foresters  with  a  notion  that  the 
bottom  of  the  lake  contained  great  stores  of  treasure.  During 
the  spring  and  summer  of  1740  there  was  little  rain  ;  and  the 
following  summer  also,  1741,  was  so  uncommonly  dry,  that  many 
springs  and  ponds  failed,  and  this  lake  in  particular,  whose  bed 
became  as  dusty  as  the  surrounding  heaths  and  wastes.  This 
favourable  juncture  induced  some  of  the  forest  cottagers  to  begin 
a  search,  which  was  attended  with  such  success  that  all  the  la- 
bourers in  the  neighbourhood  flocked  to  the  spot,  and  with  spades 
and  hoes  turned  up  great  part  of  that  large  area.    Instead  of  pots 


OF    SELBORNE.  39 


LETTER     IX. 

By  way  of  supplement,  I  shall  trouble  you  once 
more  on  this  subject,  to  inform  you  that  Wolmer, 
with  her  sister  forest  Ayles  Holt,  alias  Alice  Holt,* 
as  it  is  called  in  old  records,  is  held  by  grant  from 
the  crown  for  a  term  of  years. 

The  grantees  that  the  author  remembers  are, 
Brigadier-general  Emanuel  Scroope  Howe  and  his 
lady  Ruperta,  who  was  a  daughter  of  Prince  Ru- 
pert ;  a  Mr.  Mordaunt,  of  the  Peterborough  family, 
who  married  a  dowager  Lady  Pembroke  ;  Henry 
Bilson  Legge  and  lady ;  and  now  Lord  Stawel, 
their  son. 

of  coins,  as  they  expected,  they  found  great  heaps,  the  one  lying 
on  the  other  as  if  shot  out  of  a  bag,  many  of  which  were  in  good 
preservation.  Silver  and  gold  these  inquirers  expected  to  find  ; 
but  their  discoveries  consisted  solely  of  many  hundreds  of  Roman 
copper  coins  and  some  medallions,  all  of  the  lower  empire. 
There  was  not  much  virtu  stirring  at  that  time  in  this  neighbour- 
hood ;  however,  some  of  the  gentry  and  clergy  around  bought 
what  pleased  them  best,  and  some  dozens  fell  to  the  share  of  the 
author. 

The  owners  at  first  held  their  commodity  at  a  high  price  ;  but, 
finding  that  they  were  not  likely  to  meet  with  dealers  at  such  a 
rate,  they  soon  lowered  their  terms,  and  sold  the  fairest  as  they 
could.  The  coins  that  were  rejected  became  current,  and  passed 
for  farthings  at  the  petty  shops.  Of  those  that  we  saw,  the  greater 
part  were  of  Marcus  Aurelius  and  the  Empress  Faustina  his  wife, 
the  father  and  mother  of  Commodus.  Some  of  Faustina  were 
in  high  relief,  and  exhibited  an  agreeable  set  of  features,  which 
probably  resembled  that  lady,  who  was  more  celebrated  for  her 
beauty  than  for  her  virtues.  The  medallions,  in  general,  were  of 
a  paler  colour  than  the  coins. — White's  Antiquities  of  Selborne. 

*  "  In  Rot.  Inquisit.  de  statu  forest,  in  Scaccar.,  36  Ed.  III.,  it 
is  called  Aisholt."  In  the  same,  "  Tit.  Wolmer  and  Aisholt 
Hantisc.  Dominus  Rex  habet  unam  capellam  in  haia  sua  de 
Kingesle."  "  Haia,  sepes,  sepimentum,  parous  :  a  Gall,  haie  and 
haye" — Spelman's  Glossary. 


40  NATURAL   HISTORY 

The  lady  of  General  Howe  lived  to  an  advanced 
age,  long  surviving  her  husband  ;  and  at  her  death 
left  behind  her  many  curious  pieces  of  mechanism 
of  her  father's  constructing,  who  was  a  distinguish- 
ed mechanic  and  artist*  as  well  as  warrior  ;  and 
among  the  rest  a  very  complicated  clock,  lately  in 
possession  of  Mr.  Elmer,  the  celebrated  game  paint- 
er at  Farnham,  in  the  county  of  Surrey. 

Though  these  two  forests  are  only  parted  by  a 
narrow  range  of  enclosures,  yet  no  two  soils  can  be 
more  different ;  for  the  Holt  consists  of  a  strong 
loam  of  a  miry  nature,  carrying  a  good  turf,  and 
abounding  with  oaks  that  grow  to  be  large  timber, 
while  Wolmer  is  nothing  but  a  hungry,  sandy,  bar- 
ren waste. 

The  former,  being  all  in  the  parish  of  Binsted,  is 
about  two  miles  in  extent  from  north  to  south,  and 
near  as  much  from  east  to  west,  and  contains  with- 
in it  many  woodlands  and  lawns,  and  the  Great 
Lodge  where  the  grantees  reside,  and  a  smaller 
lodge  called  Goose  Green  ;  and  is  abutted  on  by  the 
parishes  of  Kingsley,  Frinsham,  Farnham,  and 
Bentley,  all  of  which  have  right  of  common. 

One  thing  is  remarkable,  that,  though  the  Holt 
has  been  of  old  well  stocked  with  fallow  deer,  un- 
restrained by  any  pales  or  fences  more  than  a  com- 
mon  hedge,  yet  they  are  never  seen  within  the 
limits  of  Wolmer  :  nor  were  the  red  deer  of  Wol- 
mer ever  known  to  haunt  the  thickets  or  glades  of 
the  Holt. 

At  present  the  deer  of  the  Holt  are  much  thinned 
and  reduced  by  the  night-hunters,  who  perpetually 

*  This  prince  was  the  inventor  of  mezzotinto. 


OP    SELBORNE.  41 

harass  them,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  numerous 
keepers,  and  the  severe  penalties  that  have  been 
put  in  force  against  them  as  often  as  they  have  been 
detected  and  rendered  liable  to  the  lash  of  the  law. 
Neither  fines  nor  imprisonment  can  deter  them  ; 
so  impossible  is  it  to  extinguish  the  spirit  of  sport- 
ing, which  seems  to  be  inherent  in  human  nature. 

General  Howe  turned  out  some  German  wild 
boars  and  sows  in  his  forests,  to  the  great  terror  of 
the  neighbourhood,  and  at  one  time  a  wild  bull  or 
buffalo  ;  but  the  country  rose  upon  them  and  de- 
stroyed them. 

A  very  large  fall  of  timber,  consisting  of  about 
one  thousand  oaks,  has  been  cut  this  spring  (viz., 
1784)  in  the  Holt  Forest ;  one  fifth  of  which,  it 
is  said,  belongs  to  the  grantee,  Lord  Stawel.     He 
lays  claim  also  to  the  lop  and  top  ;  but  the  poor  of 
the  parishes  of  Binsted  and  Frinsham,  Bentley  and 
Kingsley,  assert  that  it  belongs  to  them ;  and,  as- 
sembling in  a  riotous  manner,  have  actually  taken 
it  all  away.     One  man,  who  keeps  a  team,  has 
carried  home  for  his  share  forty  stacks  of  wood. 
Forty-five  of  these  people  his  lordship  has  served 
with  actions.     These  trees,  which  were  very  sound 
and  in  high  perfection,  were  winter-cut,  viz.,  in 
February  and  March,  before  the  bark  would  run. 
In  old  times,  the  Holt  was  estimated  to  be  eighteen 
miles,  computed  measure,  from  water-carriage,  viz., 
from  the  town  of  Chertsey,  on  the  Thames,  but 
now  it  is  not  half  that  distance,  since  the  Wey  is 
made  navigable  up  to  the  town  of  Godalming,  in 
the  county  of  Surrey. 

D2 


42  NATURAL    HISTORY 


LETTER     X. 


August  4,  1767. 

It  has  been  my  misfortune  never  to  have  had  any 
neighbours  whose  studies  have  led  them  towards 
the  pursuit  of  natural  knowledge  ;  so  that,  for  want 
of  a  companion  to  quicken  my  industry  and  sharpen 
my  attention,  I  have  made  but  slender  progress  in 
a  kind  of  information  to  which  I  have  been  attach- 
ed from  my  childhood. 

As  to  Swallows  (hirundines  rustica)  being  found 
in  a  torpid  state  during  the  winter  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight  or  any  part  of  this  country,  I  never  heard 
any  such  account  worth  attending  to.  But  a  clergy- 
man of  an  inquisitive  turn  assures  me  that,  when 
he  was  a  great  boy,  some  workmen,  in  pulling  down 
the  battlements  of  a  church  tower  early  in  the 
spring,  found  two  or  three  swifts  (hirundines  apodes) 
amoncr  the  rubbish,  which  were,  at  first  appearance, 
dead ;  but,  on  being  carried  towards  the  fire,  revi- 
ved. He  told  me  that,  out  of  his  great  care  to  pre- 
serve them,  he  put  them  in  a  paper  bag  and  hung 
them  by  the  kitchen  fire,  where  they  were  suffoca- 
ted. 

Another  intelligent  person  has  informed  me  that, 
while  he  was  a  schoolboy  at  Brighthelmstone,  in 
Sussex,  a  great  fragment  of  the  chalk  cliff  fell  down 
one  stormy  winter  on  the  beach,  and  that  many 
people  found  swallows  among  the  rubbish  ;  but,  on 
my  questioning  him  whether  he  saw  any  of  those 
birds  himself,  to  my  no  small  disappointment  he 
answered  me  in  the  negative,  but  that  others  assu- 
red  him  they  did. 

Young  broods  of  swallows  began  to  appear  this 


OF    SELBORNE. 


43 


year  on  July  the  11th,  and  young  martins  (hirun- 
dines  urbicce)  were  then   fledged   in  their  nests. 


Both  species  will  hatch  again  once ;  for  I  see  by 
my  Fauna  of  last  year  that  young  broods  came 
forth  so  late  as  September  the  18th.  Are  not  these 
late  hatchings  more  in  favour  of  hiding  than  mi- 
gration ?  Nay,  some  young  martins  remained  in 
their  nests  last  year  so  late  as  September  the  29th  ; 
and  yet  they  totally  disappeared  with  us  by  the  5th 
of  October. 

How  strange  it  is  that  the  swift,  which  seems  to 
live  exactly  the  same  life  with  the  swallow  and 


44  NATURAL   HISTORY 

house-martin,  should  leave  us  before  the  middle  of 
August  invariably !  while  the  latter  stay  often  till 
the  middle  of  October;  and  once  I  saw  numbers 
of  house-martins  on  the  7th  of  November.  The 
martins  and  red-wing  fieldfares  were  flying  in  sight 
together  ;  an  uncommon  assemblage  of  summer 
and  winter  birds ! 

A  little  yellow  bird  (it  is  either  a  species  of  the 
alauda  trivialis,  or  rather,  perhaps,  of  the  motacilla 
trochilus)  still  continues  to  make  a  sibilous  shiver- 
ing noise  in  the  tops  of  tall  woods.  The  stoparola 
of  Ray  (for  which  we  have,  as  yet,  no  name  in  these 
parts)  is  called  in  your  Zoology  the  Fly-catcher. 


There  is  one  circumstance  characteristic  of  this 
bird  which  seems  to  have  escaped  observation ;  and 
that  is,  it  takes  its  stand  on  the  top  of  some  stake 
or  post,  from  whence  it  springs  forth  on  its  prey, 
catching  a  fly  in  the  air,  and  hardly  ever  touching 
the  ground,  but  returning  still  to  the  same  stand  for 
many  times  together. 

I  perceive  there  are  more  than  one  species  of  the 
motacilla  trochilus :  Mr.  Derham  supposes,  in  Ray's 


OP    SELBORNE. 


45 


Philosophical  Letters,  that  he  has  discovered  three. 
In  these  there  is  again  an  instance  of  some  very 
common  birds  that  have  as  yet  no  English  name. 

Mr.  Stillingfleet  makes  a  question  whether  the 
blackcap  (motacilla  atricapilla)  be  a  bird  of  passage 
or  not.  I  think  there  is  no  doubt  of  it ;  for  in 
April,  in  the  first  fine  weather,  they  come  trooping 
all  at  once  into  these  parts,  but  are  never  seen  in 
the  winter.     They  are  delicate  songsters. 

Numbers  of  snipes  build  every  summer  in  some 
moory  ground  on  the  verge  of  this  parish.  It  is 
very  amusing  to  see  the  cock-bird  on  wing  at  that 
time,  and  to  hear  his  piping  and  humming  notes. 

I  have  had  no  opportunity  yet  of  procuring  any 
of  those  mice  which  I  mentioned  to  you  in  town. 
The  person  that  brought  me  the  last  says  they  are 
plenty  in  harvest,  at  which  time  I  will  take  care  to 
get  more,  and  will  endeavour  to  put  the  matter  out 
of  doubt  whether  it  be  a  nondescript  species  or  not. 

I  suspect  much  there  may  be  two  species  of 
Water-rats.  Ray  says,  and  Linnseus  after  him, 
that  the  water-rat  is  web-footed  behind.  Now  I 
have  discovered  a  rat  on  the  banks  of  our  little 


46  NATURAL   HISTORY 

stream  that  is  not  web.footed,  and  yet  is  an  excel- 
lent swimmer  and  diver  :  it  answers  exactly  to  the 
mus  amphibius  (see  Syst.  Nat.),  which,  he  says, 
"  natat  in  fossis  et  urinatur."  I  should  be  glad  to 
procure  one  " plantis  palmatis."  Linnaeus  seems 
to  be  in  a  puzzle  about  his  mus  amphibius,  and  to 
doubt  whether  it  differs  from  his  mus  terrestris  ; 
which  if  it  be,  as  he  allows,  the  "mus  agrestis 
capite  grandi  brachyuros"  of  Ray  is  widely  different 
from  the  water-rat,  both  in  size,  make,  and  manner 
of  life. 

As  to  the  falco  which  I  mentioned  in  town,  I 
shall  take  the  liberty  to  send  it  down  to  you  into 
Wales,  presuming  on  your  candour  that  you  will 
excuse  me  if  it  should  appear  as  familiar  to  you  as 
it  is  strange  to  me.  Though  mutilated,  "  qualem 
dices  .  .  .  antehac  fuisse,  tales  cum  sint  reliquiae  /" 

It  haunted  a  marshy  piece  of  ground  in  quest  ot 
wild  ducks  and  snipes  ;  but  when  it  was  shot  had 
just  knocked  down  a  rook,  which  it  was  tearing  in 
pieces.  I  cannot  make  it  answer  to  any  of  our 
English  hawks,  neither  could  I  find  any  like  it  at 
the  curious  exhibition  of  stuffed  birds  in  Spring 
Gardens.  I  found  it  nailed  up  at  the  end  of  a  barn, 
which  is  the  countryman's  museum. 

The  parish  I  live  in  is  a  very  abrupt,  uneven 
country,  full  of  hills  and  woods,  and  therefore  full 
of  birds. 


OF    SELBORNE. 


47 


LETTER   XI. 

Selborne,  September  9,  1767. 

It  will  not  be  without  impatience  that  I  shall  wait 
for  your  thoughts  with  regard  to  the  falco :  as  to 
its  weight,  breadth,  &c.  I  wish  I  had  set  them 
down  at  the  time ;  but,  to  the  best  of  my  remem- 
brance, it  weighed  two  pounds  and  eight  ounces, 
and  measured,  from  wing  to  wing,  thirty-eight 
inches.  Its  cere  and  feet  were  yellow,  and  the 
circle  of  its  eyelids  a  bright  yellow.  As  it  had 
been  killed  some  days  and  the  eyes  were  sunk,  I 
could  make  no  good  observation  on  the  colour  ot 
the  pupils  and  the  irides. 

The  most  unusual  birds  I  ever  observed  in  these 
parts  were  a  pair  of  Hoopoes  (upupa),  which  came 


several  years  ago  in  the  summer,  and  frequented 
an  ornamented  piece  of  ground  which  joins  to  my 
garden  for  some  weeks.  They  used  to  march  about 
m  a  stately  manner,  feeding  in  the  walks  many  times 


48  NATURAL  HISTORY 

in  the  day;  and  seemed  disposed  to  build  in  my 
outlet,  but  were  frighted  and  persecuted  by  idle  boys, 
who  never  let  them  be  at  rest. 

Three  grosbeaks  (loxia  coccothraustes)  appeared 
some  years  ago  in  my  fields,  in  the  winter,  one  of 
which  I  shot.  Since  that,  now  and  then  one  is  oc- 
casionally seen  in  the  same  dead  season.* 

A  crossbill  (loxia  curvirostra)  was  killed  last  year 
in  this  neighbourhood. 

Our  streams,  which  are  small,  and  rise  only  at 
the  end  of  the  village,  yield  nothing  but  the  bull's- 
head  or  miller's-thumb  (gobius  Jluviatilis  capitatus), 
the  trout  (trutta  Jluviatilis),  the  eel  (anguilla),  the 
lampern  (lampatra  parva  et  Jluviatilis),  and  the 
stickleback  (pisciculus  aculeatus). 

We  are  twenty  miles  from  the  sea,  and  almost 
as  many  from  a  great  river,  and  therefore  see  but 
little  of  seabirds.  As  to  wild  fowls,  we  have  a  few 
teams  of  ducks  bred  up  in  the  moors  where  the 
snipes  dwell ;  and  multitudes  of  widgeons  and  teals, 
in  hard  weather,  frequent  our  lakes  in  the  forest. 

Having  some  acquaintance  with  a  tame  brown 
owl,  I  find  that  it  casts  up  the  fur  of  mice  and  the 
feathers  of  birds  in  pellets,  after  the  manner  of 

*  From  Miscellaneous  Observations.  "  Mr.  B.  shot  a  cock 
grosbeak  which  he  had  observed  to  haunt  his  garden  for  more 
than  a  fortnight.  I  began  to  accuse  this  bird  of  making  sad 
havoc  among  the  buds  of  the  cherries,  gooseberries,  and  wall- 
fruit  of  all  the  neighbouring  orchards.  Upon  opening  its  crop  or 
craw,  no  buds  were  to  be  seen,  but  a  mass  of  kernels  of  the  stones 
of  fruits.  Mr.  B.  observed  that  this  bird  frequented  the  spot 
where  plum-trees  grow,  and  that  he  had  seen  it  with  somewhat 
hard  in  its  mouth,  which  it  broke  with  difficulty ;  these  were  the 
stones  of  damsons.  The  Latin  name  signifies  berry-breaker,  be- 
cause with  its  large  horny  beak  it  cracks  and  breaks  the  sheila 
of  stone-fruits  for  the  sake  of  the  seed  or  kernel.  Birds  of  this 
sort  are  rarely  seen  in  England,  and  only  in  winter. 


OF    SELBORNE.  49 

hawks  ;  when  full,  like  a  dog,  it  hides  what  it  can- 
not eat. 

The  young  of  the  barn-owl  are  not  easily  raised, 
as  they  want  a  constant  supply  of  fresh  mice ; 
whereas  the  young  of  the  brown  owl  will  eat  indis- 
criminately all  that  is  brought :  snails,  rats,  kittens, 
puppies,  magpies,  and  any  kind  of  carrion  or  offal. 

The  house-martins  have  eggs  still,  and  squab- 
young.  The  last  swift  I  observed  was  about  the 
21st  of  August ;  it  was  a  straggler. 

Redstarts,  fly-catchers,  whitethroats,  and  reguli 
non  cristati  still  appear  ;  but  I  have  seen  no  black- 
caps lately. 

I  forgot  to  mention  that  I  once  saw  in  Christ 
Church  College  quadrangle,  in  Oxford,  on  a  very 
sunny,  warm  morning,  a  house-martin  flying  about 
and  settling  on  the  parapet  so  late  as  the  20th  of 
November. 

At  present  I  know  only  two  species  of  Bats,  the 


common  vesper tilio  murinus  and  the  vesperiilia 
auribus. 

I  was  much  entertained  last  summer  with  a  tame 
E 


50  NATURAL  HISTORY 

bat,  which  would  take  flies  out  of  a  person's  hand. 
If  you  gave  it  anything  to  eat,  it  brought  its  wings 
round  before  the  mouth,  hovering  and  hiding  its 
head  in  the  manner  of  birds  of  prey  when  they  feed. 
The  adroitness  it  showed  in  shearing  off  the  wings 
of  the  flies,  which  were  always  rejected,  was  worthy 
of  observation,  and  pleased  me  much.  Insects 
seemed  to  be  most  acceptable,  though  it  did  not  re- 
fuse raw  flesh  when  offered  ;  so  that  the  notion  that 
bats  go  down  chimneys  and  gnaw  men's  bacon 
seems  no  improbable  story.  While  I  amused  my- 
self with  this  wonderful  quadruped,  I  saw  it  several 
times  confute  the  vulgar  opinion,  that  bats,  when 
down  on  a  flat  surface,  cannot  get  on  the  wing  again, 
by  rising  with  great  ease  from  the  floor.  It  ran,  I 
observed,  with  more  despatch  than  I  was  aware  of, 
but  in  a  most  ridiculous  and  grotesque  manner. 

Bats  drink  on  the  wing,  like  swallows,  by  sipping 
the  surface  as  they  play  over  pools  and  streams. 
They  love  to  frequent  waters,  not  only  for  the  sake 
of  drinking,  but  on  account  of  the  insects,  which 
are  found  over  them  in  the  greatest  plenty.  As  I 
was  going  some  years  ago,  pretty  late,  in  a  boat 
from  Richmond  to  Sunbury,  on  a  warm  summer's 
evening,  I  think  I  saw  myriads  of  bats  between 
the  two  places ;  the  air  swarmed  with  them  all 
along  the  Thames,  so  that  hundreds  were  in  sight 
at  a  time. 


OF    SELBORNE.  51 


LETTER     XII. 


November  4, 1767. 

Sir, — It  gave  me  no  small  satisfaction  to  hear 
that  the  falco*  turned  out  an  uncommon  one.  I 
must  confess  I  should  have  been  better  pleased  to 
have  heard  that  I  had  sent  you  a  bird  that  you  had 
never  seen  before  ;  but  that,  I  find,  would  be  a  dif- 
ficult task. 

I  have  procured  some  of  the  mice  mentioned  in 
my  former  letters,  which  I  have  preserved  in  bran- 
dy. From  the  colour,  shape,  size,  and  manner  of 
nesting,  I  make  no  doubt  but  that  the  species  is 
nondescript.  They  are  much  smaller  and  more 
slender  than  the  mus  domesticus  medius  of  Ray, 
and  have  more  of  the  squirrel  or  dormouse  colour. 
Their  belly  is  white  ;  a  straight  line  along  their 
sides  divides  the  shades  of  their  back  and  belly. 
They  never  enter  into  houses ;  are  carried  into 
ricks  and  barns  with  the  sheaves ;  abound  in  har- 
vest ;  and  build  their  nests  amid  the  straws  of  the 
corn  above  the  ground,  and  sometimes  in  thistles. 
These  little  round  nests  are  composed  of  the  blades 
of  grass  or  wheat. 

One  of  these  nests  I  procured  this  autumn,  most 
artificially  platted,  and  composed  of  the  blades  of 
wheat ;  perfectly  round,  and  about  the  size  of  a 
cricket-ball,  with  the  aperture  so  ingeniously  clo- 
sed that  there  was  no  discovering  to  what  part  it 
belonged.  It  was  so  compact  and  well  filled  that 
it  would  roll  across  the  table  without  being  discom- 
posed, though  it  contained  eight  little  mice  that 

*  This  hawk  proved  to  be  the  falco  peregrinus— a  variety. 


52  NATURAL   HISTORY 

were  naked  and  blind.  As  this  nest  was  perfectly 
full,  how  could  the  dam  come  at  her  litter  respect- 
ively, so  as  to  administer  food  to  each?  Perhaps 
she  opens  different  places  for  that  purpose,  adjust, 
ing  them  again  when  the  business  is  over ;  but  she 
could  not  possibly  be  contained  herself  in  the  ball 
with  her  young,  which,  moreover,  would  be  daily 
increasing  in  bulk.  This  wonderful  procreant  cra- 
dle, an  elegant  instance  of  the  efforts  of  instinct, 
was  found  in  a  wheat-field,  suspended  in  the  head 
of  a  thistle. 

A  gentleman,  curious  in  birds,  wrote  me  word 
that  his  servant  had  shot  one  last  January,  in  that 
severe  weather,  which  he  believed  would  puzzle 
me.  I  called  to  see  it  this  summer,  not  knowing 
what  to  expect ;  but  the  moment  I  took  it  in  hand, 
I  pronounced  it  the  male  garrulus  Bohemicus,  or 
German  silktail,  from  the  five  peculiar  crimson 
tags  or  points  which  it  carries  at  the  ends  of  five 
of  the  short  remiges.  It  cannot,  I  suppose,  with 
any  propriety  be  called  an  English  bird,  and  yet  I 
see,  by  Ray's  Philosophical  Letters,  that  great 
flocks  of  them,  feeding  on  haws,  appeared  in  this 
kingdom  in  the  winter  of  1685. 

The  mention  of  haws  puts  me  in  mind  that  there 
is  a  total  failure  of  that  wild  fruit,  so  conducive  to 
the  support  of  many  of  the  winged  nation.  For 
the  same  severe  weather,  late  in  the  spring,  which 
cut  off  all  the  produce  of  the  more  tender  and  cu- 
rious trees,  destroyed  also  that  of  the  more  hardy 
and  common. 

Some  birds,  haunting  with  the  missel-thrushes 
and  feeding  on  the  berries  of  the  yew-tree,  which 
answered  to  the  description  of  the  merula  torquata, 


OF    SELBORNE.  53 

or  Ringousel,  were  lately  seen  in  this  neighbour- 


hood. I  employed  some  people  to  procure  me  a 
specimen,  but  without  success.     (See  Letter  VIII.) 

Query — Might  not  Canary  birds  be  naturalized 
to  this  climate,  provided  their  eggs  were  put,  in 
the  spring,  into  the  nests  of  some  of  their  conge- 
ners, as  goldfinches,  greenfinches,  &c.  1  Before 
winter,  perhaps,  they  might  be  hardened,  and  able 
to  shift  for  themselves. 

About  ten  years  ago,  I  used  to  spend  some 
weeks  yearly  at  Sunbury,  which  is  one  of  those 
pleasant  villages  lying  on  the  Thames,  near  Hamp- 
ton Court.  In  the  autumn  I  could  not  help  being 
much  amused  with  those  myriads  of  the  swallow 
kind  which  assemble  in  those  parts.  But  what 
struck  me  most  was,  that  from  the  time  they  be- 
gan to  congregate,  forsaking  the  chimneys  and 
houses,  they  roosted  every  night  in  the  osier-beds 
of  the  aits  or  islets  of  that  river.  Now  this  re- 
sorting towards  that  element,  at  that  season  of  the 
year,  seems  to  give  some  countenance  to  the  nor- 

E  2 


54  NATURAL   HISTORY 

them  opinion  (strange  as  it  is)  of  their  retiring 
under  water.  A  Swedish  naturalist  is  so  much 
persuaded  of  that  fact,  that  he  talks,  in  his  Calen- 
dar of  Flora,  as  familiarly  of  the  swallow's  going 
under  water  in  the  beginning  of  September,  as  he 
would  of  his  poultry  going  to  roost  a  little  before 
sunset. 

An  observing  gentleman  in  London  writes  me 
word  that  he  saw  a  house-martin,  on  the  23d  of 
last  October,  flying  in  and  out  of  its  nest  in  the 
Borough ;  and  I  myself,  on  the  29th  of  last  Octo- 
ber (as  I  was  travelling  through  Oxford),  saw  four 
or  five  swallows  hovering  round  and  settling  on 
the  roof  of  the  County  Hospital. 

Now  is  it  likely  that  these  poor  little  birds 
(which,  perhaps,  had  not  been  hatched  but  a  few 
weeks)  should,  at  that  late  season  of  the  year,  and 
from  so  midland  a  county,  attempt  a  voyage  to 
Goree  or  Senegal,  almost  as  far  as  the  equator  ?* 

I  acquiesce  entirely  in  your  opinion,  that,  though 
most  of  the  swallow  kind  may  migrate,  yet  some 
do  stay  behind  and  hide  with  us  during  the  winter. 

As  to  the  short-winged,  soft-billed  birds,  which 
come  trooping  in  such  numbers  in  the  spring,  I  am 
at  a  loss  even  what  to  suspect  about  them.  I 
watched  them  narrowly  this  year,  and  saw  them 
abound  till  about  Michaelmas,  when  they  appeared 
no  longer.  Subsist  they  cannot  openly  among  us, 
and  yet  elude  the  eyes  of  the  inquisitive ;  and  as 
to  their  hiding,  no  man  pretends  to  have  found  any 
of  them  in  a  torpid  state  in  the  winter.  But  with 
regard  to  their  migration,  what  difficulties  attend 

*  See  Adamson's  Voyage  to  Senegal. 


OF    SELBORNE. 


55 


that  supposition  !  that  such  feeble,  bad  fliers  (who 
the  summer  long  never  flit  but  from  hedge  to 
hedge)  should  be  able  to  traverse  vast  seas  and 
continents,  in  order  to  enjoy  milder  seasons  amid 
the  regions  of  Africa ! 


LETTER     XIII. 

Selborne,  Jan.  22,  1768. 

Sir, — As  in  one  of  your  former  letters  you  ex- 
pressed the  more  satisfaction  from  my  correspond- 
ence on  account  of  my  living  in  the  most  south- 
erly county,  so  now  I  may  return  the  compliment, 
and  expect  to  have  my  curiosity  gratified  by  your 
living  much  more  to  the  north. 

For  many  years  past  I  have  observed  that,  to- 
wards Christmas,  vast  flocks  of  Chaffinches  have 


appeared  in  the  fields ;  many  more,  I  used  to  think, 
than  could  be  hatched  in  any  one  neighbourhood. 


56  NATURAL    HISTORY 

But,  when  I  came  to  observe  them  more  narrowly, 
I  was  amazed  to  find  that  they  seemed  to  me  to  be 
almost  all  hens.  I  communicated  my  suspicions  to 
some  intelligent  neighbours,  who,  after  taking  pains 
about  the  matter,  declared  that  they  also  thought 
them  all  mostly  hens,  at  least  fifty  to  one.  This 
extraordinary  occurrence  brought  to  my  mind  the 
remark  of  Linnseus,  that  "before  winter  all  their 
hen  chaffinches  migrate  through  Holland  into  It- 
aly." Now  I  want  to  know,  from  some  curious 
person  in  the  north,  whether  there  are  any  large 
flocks  of  these  finches  with  them  in  the  winter,  and 
of  which  sort  they  mostly  consist ;  for  from  such  in- 
telligence one  might  be  able  to  judge  whether  our 
female  flocks  migrate  from  the  other  end  of  the 
island,  or  whether  they  come  over  to  us  from  the 
Continent. 

We  have,  in  the  winter,  vast  flocks  of  the  com- 
mon Linnets,  more,  I  think,  than  can  be  hatched 


in  any  one  district.     These,  I  observe,  when  the 
spring  advances,  assemble  on  some  tree  in  the  sun- 


OF    SELBORNE.  57 

shine,  and  join  all  in  a  gentle  sort  of  chirping,  as  if 
they  were  about  to  break  up  their  winter-quarters, 
and  betake  themselves  to  their  proper  summer 
homes.  It  is  well  known,  at  least,  that  the  swal- 
lows and  the  fieldfares  do  congregate  with  a  gentle 
twittering  before  they  make  their  respective  depar- 
ture. 

You  may  depend  on  it  that  the  bunting,  emberiza 
miliaria,  does  not  leave  this  country  in  the  winter. 
In  January,  1767,  I  saw  several  dozens  of  them,  in 
the  midst  of  a  severe  frost,  among  the  bushes  on 
the  Downs  near  Andover :  in  our  woodland  enclosed 
districts  it  is  a  rare  bird. 

Wagtails,  both  white  and  yellow,  are  with  us  all 
the  winter.  Quails  crowd  to  our  southern  coast, 
and  are  often  killed  in  numbers  by  people  that  go 
on  purpose. 

Mr.  Stillingfleet,  in  his  Tracts,  says  that,  "  if 
the  Wheatear  (ananthe)  doth  not  quit  England,  it 


certainly  shifts  places  ;  for  about  harvest  they  are 
not  to  be  found  where  there  was  before  great  plen. 


58  NATURAL    HISTORY 

ty  of  them."  This  will  account  for  the  vast  quan- 
tities that  are  caught  about  that  time  on  the  South 
Downs  near  Lewes,  where  they  are  esteemed  a  del- 
icacy. There  have  been  shepherds,  I  have  been 
credibly  informed,  that  have  made  many  pounds  in 
a  season  by  catching  them  in  traps.  And,  though 
such  multitudes  are  taken,  I  never  saw  (and  I  am 
well  acquainted  with  those  parts)  above  two  or 
three  at  a  time ;  for  they  are  never  gregarious. 
They  may,  perhaps,  migrate  in  general,  and  for 
that  purpose  draw  towards  the  cost  of  Sussex  in 
autumn  ;  but  that  they  do  not  all  withdraw  I  am 
sure,  because  I  see  a  few  stragglers  in  many  coun- 
ties at  all  times  of  the  year,  especially  about  war- 
rens and  stone-quarries. 

I  have  no  acquaintance  at  present  among  the 
gentlemen  of  the  navy,  but  have  written  to  a  friend, 
who  was  a  sea-chaplain  in  the  late  war,  desiring 
him  to  look  into  his  minutes  with  respect  to  birds 
that  settled  on  their  rigging  during  their  voyage  up 
or  down  the  Channel.  What  Hasselquist  says  on 
that  subject  is  remarkable  :  there  were  little  short- 
winged  birds  frequently  coming  on  board  his  ship 
all  the  way  from  our  Channel  quite  up  to  the  Le- 
vant,  especially  before  squally  weather. 

What  you  suggest  with  regard  to  Spain  is  highly 
probable.  The  winters  of  Andalusia  are  so  mild, 
that,  in  all  likelihood,  the  soft-billed  birds  that  leave 
us  at  that  season  may  find  insects  sufficient  to 
support  them  there. 

Some  young  man,  possessed  of  fortune,  health, 
and  leisure,  should  make  an  autumnal  voyage  into 
that  kingdom,  and  should  spend  a  year  there,  inves- 
tigating the  natural  history  of  that  vast  country. 


OF    SELBORNE. 


59 


Mr.  Willoughby  passed  through  that  kingdom  on 
such  an  errand ;  but  he  seems  to  have  skirted 
along  in  a  superficial  manner  and  an  ill  humour, 
being  much  disgusted  at  the  rude,  dissolute  manners 
of  the  people. 

I  have  no  friend  left  now  at  Sunbury  to  apply 
to  about  the  swallows  roosting  on  the  aits  of  the 
Thames,  nor  can  I  hear  any  more  about  those  birds 
which  I  suspected  were  merula  torquatce. 

As  to  the  small  mice,*  I  have  farther  to  remark, 


that,  though  they  hang  their  nests  up  amid  the 
straws  of  the  standing  corn,  above  the  ground,  yet 
I  find  that  in  the  winter  they  burrow  deep  in  the 
earth,  and  make  warm  beds  of  grass ;  but  their 
grand  rendezvous  seems  to  be  in  corn-ricks,  into 
which  they  are  carried  at  harvest.  A  neighbour 
housed  an  oat-rick  lately,  under  the  thatch  of  which 

*  The  mus  messorius,  harvest-mouse,  was  first  discovered  and 
described  by  Mr.  White. 


60  NATURAL   HISTORY 

were  assembled  near  a  hundred,  most  of  which  were 
taken,  and  some  I  saw.  I  measured  them,  and 
found  that,  from  nose  to  tail,  they  were  just  two  inch- 
es  and  a  quarter,  and  their  tails  just  two  inches  long. 
Two  of  them,  in  a  scale,  weighed  down  just  one  cop- 
per halfpenny,  which  is  about  the  third  of  an  ounce 
avoirdupois,  so  that  I  suppose  they  are  the  smallest 
quadrupeds  in  this  island.  A  full-grown  mus  me- 
dius  dotnesticus  weighs,  I  find,  one  ounce,  lumping 
weight,  which  is  more  than  six  times  as  much  as 
the  mouse  above,  and  measures  from  nose  to  tail 
four  inches  and  a  quarter,  and  the  same  in  its  tail. 
We  have  had  a  very  severe  frost  and  deep  snow 
this  month  [Jan.,  1768],  My  thermometer  was 
one  day  fourteen  degrees  and  a  half  below  the  freez- 
ing point,  within  doors.  The  tender  evergreens 
were  injured  pretty  much.  It  was  very  providen* 
tial  that  the  air  was  still  and  the  ground  well  cov- 
ered with  snow,  else  vegetation  in  general  must 
have  suffered  prodigiously.  There  is  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  some  days  were  more  severe  than  any 
since  the  year  1739-40. 


LETTER     XIV. 

Selborne,  MaTch  12,  1768. 
Dear  Sir, — If  some  curious  gentleman  would 
procure  the  head  of  a  fallow  deer  and  have  it  dis- 
sected, he  would  find  it  furnished  with  two  spiracu- 
la,  or  breathing.places,  besides  the  nostrils  ;  proba- 
bly analogous  to  the  puncta  lachrymalia  in  the  hu- 
man head.  When  deer  are  thirsty,  they  plunge  their 


OP   SELBORNE.  61 

noses,  like  some  horses,  very  deep  under  water 
while  in  the  act  of  drinking,  and  continue  them  in 
that  situation  for  a  considerable  time  ;  but,  to  obvi- 
ate any  inconvenience,  they  can  open  two  vents,  one 
at  the  inner  corner  of  each  eye,  having  a  communi- 
cation with  the  nose.  Here  seems  to  be  an  extra- 
ordinary provision  of  nature  worthy  our  attention, 
and  which  has  not,  that  I  know  of,  been  noticed  by 
any  naturalist.  For  it  looks  as  if  these  creatures 
would  not  be  suffocated,  though  both  their  mouths 
and  nostrils  were  stopped.  This  curious  formation 
of  the  head  may  be  of  singular  service  to  beasts  of 
chase,  by  affording  them  free  respiration  ;  and  no 
doubt  these  additional  nostrils  are  thrown  open 
when  they  are  hard  run.*  Mr.  Ray  observed,  that 
at  Malta  the  owners  slit  up  the  nostrils  of  such  asses 
as  were  hard  worked  ;  for  they,  being  naturally 
strait  or  small,  did  not  admit  air  sufficient  to  serve 
them  when  they  travelled  or  laboured  in  that  hot 
climate.  And  we  know  that  grooms  and  gentle- 
men of  the  turf  think  large  nostrils  necessary,  and 
a  perfection,  in  hunters  and  running  horses. 

Oppian,  the  Greek  poet,  by  the  following  line, 
seems  to  have  had  some  notion  that  stags  have  four 
spiracula : 

"  TeTpaSvfioi  fiivss,  inavpts  moifjai  Siav\ot. 

Quadrifidae  nares,  quadruplices  ad  respirationem  canales." 

Opp.,  Cyn.,  lib.  ii.,  1,  181. 

*  In  answer  to  this  account,  Mr.  Pennant  sent  me  the  follow- 
ing curious  and  pertinent  reply  :  *•  I  was  much  surprised  to  find 
in  the  antelope  something  analogous  to  what  you  mention  as  so 
remarkable  in  deer.  This  animal  also  has  a  long  slit  beneath 
each  eye,  which  can  be  opened  and  shut  at  pleasure.  On  hold- 
ing an  orange  to  one,  the  creature  made  as  much  use  of  these 
orifices  as  of  his  nostrils,  applying  them  to  the  fruit,  and  seem- 
ing to  smell  it  through  them." 

F 


62  NATURAL   HISTORY 

Writers,  copying  from  one  another,  make  Aris- 
totle say  that  goats  breathe  at  their  ears,  whereas 
he  asserts  just  the  contrary  :  "  A^Kfiatov  yap  ovk 
aXrjdrj  Xeyet,  (pafievog  avanveiv  rag  aiyag  Kara  ra 
(ora.  Alcmseon  does  not  advance  what  is  true 
when  he  avers  that  goats  breathe  through  their 
ears." — History  of  Animals,  book  i.,  chap.  xi. 


LETTER   XV. 

Selborne,  March  30,  1768. 

Dear  Sir, — Some  intelligent  country  people  have 
a  notion  that  we  have  in  these  parts  a  species  of 
the  genus  mustelinum,  besides  the  weasel,  stoat, 
ferret,  and  polecat ;  a  little  reddish  beast,  not  much 
bigger  than  a  field-mouse,  but  much  longer,  which 
they  call  a  cane.  This  piece  of  intelligence  can  be 
little  depended  on ;  but  farther  inquiry  may  be 
made. 

A  gentleman  in  this  neighbourhood  had  two  milk- 
white  rooks  in  one  nest.  A  booby  of  a  carter,  find- 
ing them  before  they  were  able  to  fly,  threw  them 
down  and  destroyed  them,  to  the  regret  of  the  owner, 
who  would  have  been  glad  to  have  preserved  such 
a  curiosity  in  his  rookery.  I  saw  the  birds  myself 
nailed  against  the  end  of  a  barn,  and  was  surprised 
to  find  that  their  bills,  legs,  feet,  and  claws  were 
milk-white. 

A  shepherd  saw,  as  he  thought,  some  white  larks 
on  a  down  above  my  house  this  winter :  were  not 
these  the  emberiza  nivalis,  the  snowflake  of  the  Brit. 
Zool.  ?    No  doubt  they  were. 


OF    SELBORNE.  63 

A  few  years  ago  I  saw  a  cock  Bullfinch  in  a 
cage,  which  had  been  caught  in  the  fields  after  it 


was  come  to  its  full  colours.  In  about  a  year  it 
began  to  look  dingy,  and,  blackening  every  succeed- 
ing year,  it  became  coal-black  at  the  end  of  four. 
Its  chief  food  was  hempseed.  Such  influence  has 
food  on  the  colour  of  animals !  The  pied  and 
mottled  colours  of  domesticated  animals  are  sup- 
posed to  be  owing  to  high,  various,  and  unusual 
food.* 

I  had  remarked,  for  years,  that  the  root  of  the 
cuckoo-pint  (arum)  was  frequently  scratched  out 
of  the  dry  banks  of  hedges,  and  eaten  in  severe 
snowy  weather.  After  observing  with  some  exact- 
ness myself,  and  getting  others  to  do  the  same,  we 
found  it  was  the  thrush  kind  that  searched  it  out. 
The  root  of  the  arum  is  remarkably  warm  and  pun- 
gent. 

Our  flocks  of  hen  chaffinches  have  not  yet  for- 

*  Birds  are  much  influenced  in  their  choice  of  food  by  colour; 
for,  though  white  currants  are  a  much  sweeter  fruit  than  red,  yet 
they  seldom  touch  the  former  till  they  have  devoured  every  bunch 
of  the  latter. 


64  NATURAL   HISTORY 

saken  us.  The  blackbirds  and  thrushes  are  very 
much  thinned  down  by  that  fierce  weather  in  Jan- 
uary. 

In  the  middle  of  February  I  discovered  in  my 
tall  hedges  a  little  bird  that  raised  my  curiosity  ;  it 
was  of  that  yellow-green  colour  that  belongs  to  the 
salicaria  kind,  and,  I  think,  was  soft- billed.  It  was 
no  parus,  and  was  too  long  and  too  big  for  the  gold- 
en-crowned wren,  appearing  most  like  the  largest 
willow-wren.  It  hung  sometimes  with  its  back 
downward,  but  never  continuing  one  moment  in  the 
same  place.  I  shot  at  it,  but  it  was  so  desultory 
that  I  missed  my  aim. 

I  wonder  that  the  stone  curlew,  charadrius  cedic 
nemus,  should  be  mentioned  by  the  writers  as  a 
rare  bird  ;  it  abounds  in  all  the  champaign  parts  of 
Hampshire  and  Sussex.  Already  they  begin  clam- 
ouring in  the  evening.  They  cannot,  I  think,  with 
any  propriety,  be  called,  as  they  are  by  Mr.  Ray, 
"  circa  aquas  versantes ;"  for  with  us,  by  day  at 
least,  they  haunt  only  the  most  dry,  open,  upland 
fields  and  sheepwalks,  far  removed  from  water ; 
what  they  may  do  in  the  night  I  cannot  say.  Worms 
are  their  usual  food,  but  they  also  eat  toads  and 
frogs.* 

*  On  the  27th  of  February,  1788,  stone  curlews  were  heard  to 
pipe  ;  and  on  March  the  1st,  after  it  was  dark,  some  were  pass- 
ing over  the  village,  as  might  be  perceived  by  their  quick,  short 
note,  which  they  use  in  their  nocturnal  excursions  by  way  of 
watchword,  that  they  may  not  stray  and  lose  their  companions. 

Thus  we  see  that,  retire  whithersoever  they  may  in  the  winter, 
they  return  again  early  in  the  spring,  and  are,  as  it  now  appears, 
the  first  summer  birds  that  come  back.  Perhaps  the  mildness 
of  the  season  may  have  quickened  the  emigration  of  the  curlews 
this  year. 

They  spend  the  day  in  high,  elevated  fields  and  sheepwalks, 


OP    SELBORNE.  65 

I  can  show  you  some  good  specimens  of  my  new 
mice.  Linnaeus,  perhaps,  would  call  the  species 
mus  minimus. 


LETTER   XVI. 

Selbome,  April  18, 1768. 
Dear  Sir, — The  history  of  the  stone  curlew, 
charadrius  cedicnemus,  is  as  follows  :  It  lays  its  eggs, 
usually  two,  never  more  than  three,  on  the  bare 
ground,  without  any  nest,  in  the  field,  so  that  the 
countryman,  in  stirring  his  fallows,  often  destroys 
them.     The  young  run  immediately  from  the  egg 
like  partridges,  &c,  and  are  withdrawn  to  some 
flinty  field  by  the  dam,  where  they  skulk  among 
the  stones,  which  are  their  best  security  ;  for  their 
feathers  are  so  exactly  of  the  colour  of  our  gray 
spotted  flints,  that  the  most  exact  observer,  unless 
he  catches  the  eye  of  the  young  bird,  may  be  elu- 
ded.    The  eggs  are  short  and  round,  of  a  dirty 
white,  spotted  with  dark  bloody  blotches.     Though 
I  might  not  be  able,  just  when  I  pleased,  to  procure 
you  a  bird,  yet  I  could  show  you  them  almost  any 
day ;  and  any  evening  you  may  hear  them  round 
the  village,  for  they  make  a  clamour  which  may  be 
heard  a  mile.     (Edicnemus  is  a  most  apt  and  ex- 
pressive name  for  them,  since  their  legs  seem  swol- 
len like  those  of  a  gouty  man.     After  harvest  I 
have  shot  them  before  the  pointers  in  turnip-fields. 

but  seem  to  descend  in  the  night  to  streams  and  meadows,  per- 
haps for  water,  which  their  upland  haunts  do  not  afford  them.— 
White,  Observations  on  Birds. 

F2 


66 


NATURAL   HISTORY 


I  make  no  doubt  but  there  are  three  species  of 
the  Willow- wrens  ;*  two  I  know  perfectly,  but 


have  not  been  able  yet  to  procure  the  third.  No 
two  birds  can  differ  more  in  their  notes,  and  that 
constantly,  than  those  two  that  I  am  acquainted 
with  ;  for  the  one  has  a  joyous,  easy,  laughing  note, 
the  other  a  harsh,  loud  chirp.  The  former  is  every 
way  larger,  and  three  quarters  of  an  inch  longer, 
and  weighs  two  drachms  and  a  half,  while  the  latter 
weighs  but  two ;  so  that  the  songster  is  one  fifth 
heavier  than  the  chirper.  The  chirper  (being  the 
first  summer  bird  of  passage  that  is  heard,  the  wry. 
neckf  sometimes  excepted)  begins  his  two  notes  in 

*  The  smallest  uncrested  willow-wren,  or  chiffchaff,  is  the 
next  early  summer  bird  which  we  have  remarked :  it  utters  two 
sharp,  piercing  notes,  so  loud  in  hollow  woods  as  to  occasion  an 
echo,  and  is  usually  first  heard  about  the  20th  of  March. 

t  These  birds  appear  on  the  grassplots  and  walks :  they  walk 
a  little  as  well  as  hop,  and  thrust  their  bills  into  the  turf  in  quest, 
I  conclude,  of  ants,  which  are  their  food.  "While  they  hold  their 
bills  in  the  grass,  they  draw  out  their  prey  with  their  tongues, 
which  are  so  long  as  to  be  coiled  round  their  heads. — White, 
Observations  on  Birds. 


OP    SELBORNE.  67 

the  middle  of  March,  and  continues  them  through 
the  spring  and  summer  till  the  end  of  August,  as 
appears  by  my  journals.     The  legs  of  the  larger  of 
these  two  are  flesh-coloured ;  of  the  less,  black. 
The  Grasshopper-lark  began  his  sibilous  note 


in  my  fields  last  Saturday.  Nothing  can  be  more 
amusing  than  the  whisper  of  this  little  bird,  which 
seems  to  be  close  by,  though  at  a  hundred  yards' 
distance ;  and,  when  close  at  your  ear,  is  scarce 
any  louder  than  when  a  great  way  off.  Had  I  not 
been  a  little  acquainted  with  insects,  and  known  that 
the  grasshopper  kind  is  not  yet  hatched,  I  should 
have  hardly  believed  but  that  it  had  been  a  locusta 
whispering  in  the  bushes.  The  country  people 
laugh  when  you  tell  them  that  it  is  the  note  of  a 
bird.  It  is  the  most  artful  creature,  skulking  in  the 
thickest  part  of  a  bush,  and  will  sing  at  a  yard's  dis- 
tance provided  it  be  concealed.  I  was  obliged  to 
get  a  person  to  go  on  the  other  side  of  the  hedge 
where  it  haunted,  and  then  it  would  run  creeping 
like  a  mouse  before  us  for  a  hundred  yards  together, 


68  NATURAL   HISTORY 

through  the  bottom  of  the  thorns,  yet  it  would  not 
come  into  fair  sight ;  but  in  a  morning  early,  and 
when  undisturbed,  it  sings  on  the  top  of  a  twig, 
gaping,  and  shivering  with  its  wings.  Mr.  Ray 
himself  had  no  knowledge  of  this  bird,  but  received 
his  account  from  Mr.  Johnson,  who  apparently  con- 
founds it  with  the  reguli  non  cristati,  from  which  it 
is  very  distinct. — See  Ray's  Philos.  Letters,  p.  108. 
The  fly-catcher  (stoparola)  has  not  yet  appeared  ; 
it  usually  builds  in  my  vine.  The  redstart  begins 
to  sing ;  its  note  is  short  and  imperfect,  but  is  con- 
tinued till  about  the  middle  of  June.  The  willow- 
wrens  (the  smaller  sort)  are  horrid  pests  in  a  gar- 
den, destroying  the  peas,  cherries,  currants,  &c, 
and  are  so  tame  that  a  gun  will  not  scare  them. 

A  List  of  the  Summer  Birds  of  Passage  discovered  in  this  neighbour' 
hood,  ranged  somewhat  in  the  order  in  which  they  appear. 

L'mncei  Nomina. 

Smallest  willow-wren      .    .  Motacilla  trochilus. 

Wryneck Jynx  torquilla. 

House-swallow Hirundo  rustica. 

Martin Hirundo  urbica. 

Sand-martin Hirundo  riparia. 

Cuckoo Cuculus  canorus. 

Nightingale Motacilla  luscinia. 

Blackcap Motacilla  atricapilla. 

"Whitethroat Motacilla  sylvia. 

Middle  willow-wren    .    .    .  Motacilla  trochilus. 

Swift Hirundo  apus. 

Stone  curlew  1 Charadrius  cedicnemus  ? 

Turtle-dove? Turtur  Aldrovandi  ? 

Grasshopper-lark     ....  Alauda  trivialis. 

Landrail Rallus  crex. 

Largest  willow-wren  .     .     .  Motacilla  trochilus. 

Redstart Motacilla  phoznicurus. 

Goat-sucker,  or  fern-owl .    .  Caprimulgus  Europaeus. 

Fly-catcher Muscicapa  grisola. 

My  countrymen  talk  much  of  a  bird  that  makes 
a  clatter  with  its  bill  against  a  dead  bough  or  some 


OF    SELBORNE. 


69 


old  pales,  calling  it  a  jarbird.  I  procured  one  to 
be  shot  in  the  very  fact ;  it  proved  to  be  the  sitta 
Europ<Ba  (the  nuthatch).  Mr.  Ray  says  that  the 
less  spotted  woodpecker  does  the  same.  This  noise 
may  be  heard  a  furlong  or  more. 

Now  is  the  only  time  to  ascertain  the  short- 
winged  summer  birds ;  for,  when  the  leaf  is  out, 
there  is  no  making  any  remarks  on  such  a  restless 
tribe  ;  and,  when  once  the  young  begin  to  appear, 
it  is  all  confusion ;  there  is  no  distinction  of  genus 
or  species. 

In  summer  time  Snipes  play  over  the  moors, 


piping  and  humming;  they  always  hum  as  they 
are  descending.  Is  not  their  hum  ventriloquous, 
like  that  of  the  turkey  ?  Some  suspect  that  it  is 
made  by  their  wings. 

This  morning  I  saw  the  golden-crowned  wren, 
whose  crown  glitters  like  burnished  gold.  It  often 
hangs  like  a  titmouse,  with  its  back  downward. 


70 


NATURAL   HISTORY 


LETTER     XVII. 


Selborne,  June,  18, 1768. 

Dear  Sir, — On  Wednesday  last  arrived  your 
agreeable  letter  of  June  the  10th.  It  gives  me 
great  satisfaction  to  find  that  you  pursue  these 
studies  still  with  such  vigour,  and  are  in  such  for- 
wardness with  regard  to  reptiles  and  fishes. 

The  reptiles,  few  as  they  are,  I  am  not  acquaint- 
ed with,  so  well  as  I  could  wish,  with  regard  to 
their  natural  history. 

It  is  strange  that  the  matter  with  regard  to  the 
venom  of  toads  has  not  been  yet  settled.  That 
they  are  not  noxious  to  some  animals  is  plain  ;  for 
ducks,  buzzards,  owls,  stone  curlews,  and  snakes 
eat  them,  to  my  knowledge,  with  impunity.  And 
I  well  remember  the  time,  but  was  not  an  eye- 
witness to  the  fact  (though  numbers  of  persons 
were),  when  a  quack  at  this  village  ate  a  Toad  to 


make  the  country  people  stare  ;  afterward  he  drank 
oil. 


OF    SELBOKNE.  71 

I  have  been  informed,  also,  from  undoubted  au- 
thority, that  some  ladies  (ladies,  you  will  say,  of 
peculiar  taste)  took  a  fancy  to  a  toad,  which  they 
nourished,  summer  after  summer,  for  many  years, 
till  he  grew  to  a  monstrous  size,  with  the  maggots 
which  turn  to  flesh-flies.  The  reptile  used  to  come 
forth  every  evening  from  a  hole  under  the  garden 
steps,  and  was  taken  up,  after  supper,  on  the  table 
to  be  fed.  But  at  last  a  tame  raven,  kenning  him 
as  he  put  forth  his  head,  gave  him  such  a  severe 
stroke  with  his  horny  beak  as  put  out  one  eye. 
After  this  accident  the  creature  languished  for  some 
time  and  died. 

I  need  not  remind  a  gentleman  of  your  extensive 
reading  of  the  excellent  account  there  is  from  Mr. 
Derham,  in  Ray's  Wisdom  of  God  in  the  Creation 
(p.  365),  concerning  the  migration  of  frogs  from 
their  ponds.  In  this  account  he  at  once  subverts 
that  foolish  opinion  of  their  dropping  from  the  clouds 
in  rain,  showing  that  it  is  from  the  grateful  cool- 
ness and  moisture  of  those  showers  that  they  are 
tempted  to  set  out  on  their  travels,  which  they  defer 
till  those  fall.  Frogs  are  as  yet  in  their  tadpole 
state  ;  but  in  a  few  weeks  our  lanes,  paths,  fields 
will  swarm  for  a  few  days  with  myriads  of  those 
emigrants  no  larger  than  my  little  finger  nail.  How 
wonderful  is  the  economy  of  Providenpe  with  regard 
to  the  limbs  of  so  vile  a  reptile!  While  it  is  an 
aquatic  it  has  a  fish-like  tail  and  no  legs  ;  as  soon 
as  the  legs  sprout,  the  tail  drops  off  as  useless,  and 
the  animal  betakes  itself  to  the  land  ! 

Merret,  I  trust,  is  widely  mistaken  when  he  ad- 
vances that  the  rana  arlorea  is  an  English  reptile ; 
it  abounds  in  Germany  and  Switzerland. 


72  NATURAL   HISTORY 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  salamandra 
aquatica  of  Ray  (the  water-newt  or  eft)  will  fre- 
quently bite  at  the  angler's  bait,  and  is  often  caught 
on  his  hook.  I  used  to  take  it  for  granted  that 
the  salamandra  aquatica  was  hatched,  lived,  and 
died  in  the  water.  But  John  Ellis,  Esq.,  F.R.S. 
(the  coralline  Ellis),  asserts,  in  a  letter  to  the  Royal 
Society,  dated  June  the  5th,  1766,  in  his  account 
of  the  mud  inguana,  an  amphibious  bipes  from 
South  Carolina,  that  the  water-eft  or  newt  is  only 
the  larva  of  the  land-eft,  as  tadpoles  are  of  frogs. 
Lest  I  should  be  suspected  to  misunderstand  his 
meaning,  I  shall  give  it  in  his  own  words.  Speak- 
ing of  the  opercula,  or  coverings  to  the  gills  of  the 
mud  inguana,  he  proceeds  to  say,  that  "  The  form 
of  these  pennated  coverings  approaches  very  near 
to  what  I  have  some  time  ago  observed  in  the 
larva  or  aquatic  state  of  our  English  lacerta,  known 
by  the  name  of  eft  or  newt,  which  serve  them  for 
coverings  to  their  gills,  and  for  fins  to  swim  with 
while  in  this  state  ;  and  which  they  lose,  as  well 
as  the  fins  of  their  tails,  when  they  change  their 
state  and  become  land  animals,  as  I  have  observed 
by  keeping  them  alive  for  some  time  myself." 

Linnaeus,  in  his  Sy sterna  Naturce,  hints  at  what 
Mr.  Ellis  advances  more  than  once. 

Providence  has  been  so  indulgent  to  us  as  to 
allow  of  but  one  venomous  reptile  of  the  serpent 
kind  in  these  kingdoms,  and  that  is  the  Viper. 
As  you  propose  the  good  of  mankind  to  be  an  ob- 
ject of  your  publications,  you  will  not  omit  to  men- 
tion common  salad  oil  as  a  sovereign  remedy  against 
the  bite  of  the  viper.  As  to  the  blind  worm  (anguis 
fragilis,  so  called  because  it  snaps  in  sunder  with  a 


OF    SELBORNE.  73 

small  blow),  I  have  found,  on  examination,  that  it 
is  perfectly  innocuous.     Whereas  snakes  lay  chains 


of  eggs  every  summer  in  my  melon-beds,  in  spite 
of  all  that  my  people  can  do  to  prevent  them, 
which  eggs  do  not  hatch  till  the  spring  following, 
as  I  have  often  experienced.  Several  intelligent 
folks  assure  me  that  they  have  seen  the  viper  open 
her  mouth  and  admit  her  helpless  young  down  her 
throat  on  sudden  surprises,  just  as  the  female  opos- 
sum does  her  brood  into  the  pouch  under  her  belly 
upon  the  like  emergencies  ;  and  yet  the  London 
viper-catchers  insist  on  it,  to  Mr.  Barrington,  that 
no  such  thing  ever  happens.  The  serpent  kind  eat, 
I  believe,  but  once  in  a  year,  or,  rather,  but  only 
just  at  one  season  of  the  year.  Country  people 
talk  much  of  a  water-snake,  but,  I  am  pretty  sure, 
without  any  reason ;  for  the  common  snake  (coluber 
natrix)  delights  much  to  sport  in  the  water,  perhaps 
with  a  view  to  procure  frogs  and  other  food. 

I  cannot  well  guess  how  you  are  to  make  out 
your  twelve  species  of  reptiles,  unless  it  be  by  the 
various  species,  or  rather  varieties,  of  our  lacerti, 
of  which  Ray  enumerates  five.  I  have  not  had  op- 
portunity of  ascertaining  these,  but  remember  well 

G 


74  NATURAL   HISTORY 

to  have  seen,  formerly,  several  beautiful  green  7a- 
certi  on  the  sunny  sandbanks  near  Farnham,  in 
Surrey ;  and  Ray  admits  there  are  such  in  Ireland. 


LETTER    XVIII. 

Selbome,  July  27, 1768. 

Dear  Sir, — I  received  your  obliging  and  com- 
municative letter  of  June  the  28th  while  I  was  on 
a  visit  at  a  gentleman's  house,  where  I  had  neither 
books  to  turn  to,  nor  leisure  to  sit  down,  to  return 
you  an  answer  to  many  queries,  which  I  wanted  to 
resolve  in  the  best  manner  I  am  able. 

A  person,  by  my  order,  has  searched  our  brooks, 
but  could  find  no  such  fish  as  the  gasterosteus  pun- 
gitius ;  he  found  the  gasterosteus  aculeatus  in  plen- 
ty. This  morning,  in  a  basket,  I  packed  a  little 
earthen  pot  full  of  wet  moss,  and  in  it  some  stick- 
lebacks, some  lamperns,  some  bullheads,  but  I 
could  procure  no  minnows.  This  basket  will  be  in 
Fleet-street  by  eight  this  evening,  so  I  hope  Ma- 
zel  will  have  them  fresh  and  fair  to-morrow  morn- 
ing. I  gave  some  directions,  in  a  letter,  to  what 
particulars  the  engraver  should  be  attentive. 

Finding,  while  I  was  on  a  visit,  that  I  was  with- 
in a  reasonable  distance  of  Ambresbury,  I  sent  a 
servant  over  to  that  town  and  procured  several  liv- 
ing specimens  of  Loaches,  which  he  brought,  safe 
and  brisk,  in  a  glass  decanter.  They  were  taken 
in  the  gulleys  that  were  cut  for  watering  the  mead- 
ows. From  these  fishes  (which  measured  from 
two  to  four  inches  in  length)  I  took  the  following 


OF    SELBORNE. 


75 


description  :  "  The  loach,  in  its  general  aspect,  has 
a  pellucid  appearance ;  its  back  is  mottled  with 


irregular  collections  of  small  black  dots,  not  reach- 
ing much  below  the  linea  lateralis,  as  are  the  back 
and  tail  fins  ;  a  black  line  runs  from  each  eye  down 
to  the  nose ;  its  belly  is  of  a  silvery  white ;  the 
upper  jaw  projects  beyond  the  lower,  and  is  sur- 
rounded with  six  feelers,  three  on  each  side ;  its 
pectoral  fins  are  large,  its  ventral  much  smaller; 
the  fin  behind  is  small ;  its  dorsal  fin  large,  contain- 
ing eight  spines ;  its  tail,  where  it  joins  to  the  tail  fin, 
remarkably  broad,  without  any  taperness,  so  as  to 
be  characteristic  of  this  genus :  the  tail  fin  is  broad, 
and  square  at  the  end.  From  the  breadth  and 
muscular  strength  of  the  tail,  it  appears  to  be  an 
active,  nimble  fish." 

The  water-eft  has  not,  that  I  can  discern,  the 
least  appearance  of  any  gills,  for  want  of  which  it 
is  continually  rising -to  the  surface  of  the  water  to 
take  in  fresh  air.  It  is  continually  climbing  over 
the  brims  of  the  vessel,  within  which  we  keep  it  in 
water,  and  wandering  away ;   and  people  every 


76  NATURAL    HISTORY 

summer  see  numbers  crawling  out  of  the  pools 
where  they  are  hatched  up  the  dry  banks.  There 
are  varieties  of  them,  differing  in  colour ;  and  some 
have  fins  up  their  tail  and  back,  and  some  have 
not. 


LETTER    XIX. 

Selborne  August  17, 1768. 
Dear  Sir, — I  have  now,  past  dispute,  made  out 
three  distinct  species  of  the  willow-wrens  (motacil- 
la  trochili),  which  constantly  and  invariably  use  dis- 
tinct notes.  But,  at  the  same  time,  I  am  obliged  to 
confess  that  I  know  nothing  of  your  willow-lark.* 
In  my  letter  of  April  the  18th,  I  had  told  you  per- 
emptorily that  I  knew  your  willow-lark,  but  had  not 
seen  it  then ;  but,  when  I  came  to  procure  it,  it 
proved  in  all  respects  a  very  motacilla  trochilus,  only 
that  it  is  a  size  larger  than  the  two  other,  and  the 
yellow. green  of  the  whole  upper  part  of  the  body 
is  more  vivid,  and  the  belly  of  a  clearer  white.  I 
have  specimens  of  the  three  sorts  now  lying  before 
me,  and  can  discern  that  there  are  three  grada- 
tions of  sizes,  and  that  the  least  has  black  legs, 
and  the  other  two  flesh-coloured  ones.  The  yel- 
lowest bird  is  considerably  the  largest,  and  has  its 
quill-feathers  and  secondary  feathers  tipped  with 
white,  which  the  others  have  not.  This  last  haunts 
only  the  tops  of  trees  in  high  beechen  woods,  and 
makes  a  sibilous,  grasshopper-like  noise  now  and 
then,  at  short  intervals,  shivering  a  little  with  its 

*  Brit.  Zool.,  edit.  1776,  8vo,  p.  381. 


OF    SELEORNE.  77 

wings  when  it  sings ;  and  is,  I  make  no  doubt  now, 
the  regulus  non  cristatus  of  Ray,  which  he  says, 
"  cantat  voce  striduld  locusta,"  Yet  this  great  or- 
nithologist never  suspected  that  there  were  three 
species. 


LETTER     XX. 

Selborne,  October  8,  1768. 

It  is,  I  find,  in  zoology  as  it  is  in  botany ;  all 
nature  is  so  full,  that  that  district  produces  the 
greatest  variety  which  is  the  most  examined.  Sev- 
eral birds,  which  are  said  to  belong  to  the  north 
only,  are,  it  seems,  often  in  the  south.  I  have 
discovered  this  summer  three  species  of  birds  with 
us  which  writers  mention  as  only  to  be  seen  in 
the  northern  counties.  The  first  that  was  brought 
me  (on  the  14th  of  May)  was  the  sandpiper,  tringa 
hypoleucus ;  it  was  a  cock  bird,  and  haunted  the 
banks  of  some  ponds  near  the  village ;  and,  as  it  had 
a  companion,  doubtless  intended  to  have  built  near 
that  water.  Besides,  the  owner  has  told  me  since, 
that,  on  recollection,  he  has  seen  some  of  the  same 
birds  round  his  ponds  in  former  summers. 

The  next  bird  that  I  procured  (on  the  21st  of 
May)  was  a  male  red-backed  butcher-bird,  lanius 
collurio.  My  neighbour,  who  shot  it,  says  that  it 
might  easily  have  escaped  his  notice,  had  not  the 
outcries  and  chattering  of  the  whitethroats  and 
other  small  birds  drawn  his  attention  to  the  bush 
where  it  was  ;  its  craw  was  filled  with  the  legs  and 
wings  of  beetles. 

G2 


78  NATURAL   HISTORY 

The  next  rare  birds  (which  were  procured  for 
me  last  week)  were  some  Ringousels  (turdi  tor- 
quati). 

This  week  twelvemonth,  a  gentleman  from  Lon- 
don, being  with  us,  was  amusing  himself  with  a  gun, 
and  found,  he  told  us,  on  an  old  yew  hedge  where 
there  were  berries,  some  birds  like  blackbirds,  with 
rings  of  white  round  their  necks  :  a  neighbouring 
farmer  also  at  the  same  time  observed  the  same ; 
but,  as  no  specimens  were  procured,  little  notice 
was  taken.  I  mentioned  this  circumstance  to  you 
in  my  letter  of  November  the  4th,  1767  (you,  how- 
ever, paid  but  small  regard  to  what  I  said,  as  I  had 
not  seen  these  birds  myself) ;  but  last  week  the 
aforesaid  farmer,  seeing  a  large  flock,  twenty  or 
thirty  of  these  birds,  shot  two  cocks  and  two  hens ; 
and  says,  on  recollection,  that  he  remembers  to 
have  observed  these  birds  again  last  spring,  about 
Lady  Day,  as  it  were,  on  their  return  to  the  north. 
Now  perhaps  these  ousels  are  not  the  ousels  of  the 
north  of  England,  but  belong  to  the  more  northern 
parts  of  Europe,  and  may  retire  before  the  exces- 
sive rigour  of  the  frosts  in  those  parts,  and  return 
to  lay  their  eggs  in  spring,  when  the  cold  abates. 
If  this  be  the  case,  here  is  discovered  a  new  bird  of 
winter  passage,  concerning  whose  migrations  the 
writers  are  silent ;  but  if  these  birds  should  prove 
the  ousels  of  the  north  of  England,  then  here  is  a 
migration  disclosed  within  our  own  kingdom  never 
before  remarked.  It  does  not  yet  appear  whether 
they  retire  beyond  the  bounds  of  our  island  to  the 
south  ;  but  it  is  most  probable  that  they  usually  do, 
or  else  one  cannot  suppose  that  they  would  have 
continued  so  long  unnoticed  in  the  southern  coun- 


OF   SELBORNE. 


79 


ties.  The  ousel  is  larger  than  a  blackbird,  and 
feeds  on  haws  ;  but  last  autumn  (when  there  were 
no  haws)  it  fed  on  yew-berries  :  in  the  spring  it 
feeds  on  ivy- berries,  which  ripen  only  at  that  sea- 
son, in  Manfh  and  April. 

I  must  not  omit  to  tell  you  (as  you  have  been 
so  lately  on  the  study  of  reptiles)  that  my  people 
every  now  and  then,  of  late,  draw  up  with  a  bucket 
of  water  from  my  well,  which  is  sixty-three  feet 
deep,  a  large  black  warty  Lizard,  with  a  fin-tail 


and  yellow  belly.  How  they  first  came  down  at 
that  depth,  and  how  they  were  ever  to  have  got  out 
thence  without  help,  is  more  than  I  am  able  to  say. 

My  thanks  are  due  to  you  for  your  trouble  and 
care  in  the  examination  of  a  buck's  head.  As  far 
as  your  discoveries  reach  at  present,  they  seem 
much  to  corroborate  my  suspicions  ;  and  I  hope 

Mr. may  find  reason  to  give  his  decision  in 

my  favour  ;  and  then,  I  think,  we  may  advance 
this  extraordinary  provision  of  nature  as  a  new 
instance  of  the  wisdom  of  God  in  the  creation. 

As  yet  I  am  not  quite  done  with  my  history  of 
the  c&dicnemus,  or  stone  curlew  ;  for  I  shall  desire 


80  NATURAL  HISTORY 

a  gentleman  in  Sussex  (near  whose  house  these 
birds  congregate  in  vast  flocks  in  the  autumn)  to 
observe  nicely  when  they  leave  him  (if  they  do 
leave  him),  and  when  they  return  again  in  the 
spring  :  I  was  with  this  gentleman  lately,  and  saw 
several  single  birds. 


LETTER  III. 

Selbome,  Nov.  28, 1768. 

Dear  Sir, — With  regard  to  the  cedicnemus,  or 
stone  curlew,  I  intend  to  write  very  soon  to  my 
friend  near  Chichester,  in  whose  neighbourhood 
these  birds  seem  most  to  abound ;  and  shall  urge 
him  to  take  particular  notice  when  they  begin  to 
congregate,  and  afterward  to  watch  them  most 
narrowly  whether  they  do  not  withdraw  themselves 
during  the  dead  of  the  winter.  When  I  have  ob- 
tained information  with  respect  to  this  circumstance, 
I  shall  have  finished  my  history  of  the  stone  curlew, 
which  I  hope  will  prove  to  your  satisfaction,  as  it 
will  be,  I  trust,  very  near  the  truth.  This  gentle- 
man, as  he  occupies  a  large  farm  of  his  own,  and  is 
abroad  early  and  late,  will  be  a  very  proper  spy 
upon  the  motions  of  these  birds  ;  and,  besides,  as 
I  have  prevailed  on  him  to  buy  the  Naturalist's 
Journal  (with  which  he  is  much  delighted),  I  shall 
expect  that  he  will  be  very  exact  in  his  dates.  It 
is  very  extraordinary,  as  you  observe,  that  a  bird 
so  common  with  us  should  never  straggle  to  you. 

And  here  will  be  the  properest  place  to  men- 
tion, while  I  think  of  it,  an  anecdote  which  the 


OF    SELBORNE.  81 

above-mentioned  gentleman  told  me  when  I  was 
last  at  his  house  ;  which  was,  that  in  a  warren 
joining  to  his  outlet,  many  Daws  (corvi  monidula) 


build  every  year  in  the  rabbit-burrows  under 
ground.  The  way  he  and  his  brothers  used  to 
take  their  nests,  while  they  were  boys,  was  by 
listening  at  the  mouths  of  the  holes,  and  if  they 
heard  the  young  ones  cry,  they  twisted  the  nest 
out  with  a  forked  stick.  Some  water-fowls  (viz., 
the  puffins)  place  their  nests,  I  know,  in  this  man- 
ner ;  but  I  should  never  have  suspected  the  daws 
of  building  in  holes  on  the  flat  ground. 

Another  very  unlikely  spot  is  made  use  of  by 
daws  as  a  place  to  build  in,  and  that  is  Stonehenge. 
These  birds  deposite  their  nests  in  the  interstices 
between  the  upright  and  the  impost  stones  of  that 
amazing  work  of  antiquity,  which  circumstance 
alone  speaks  the  prodigious  height  of  the  upright 
stones,  that  they  should  be  tall  enough  to  secure 
those  nests  from  the  annoyance  of  shepherd-boys, 
who  are  always  idling  round  that  place. 


82  NATURAL  HISTORY 

One  of  my  neighbours  last  Saturday,  November 
the  26th,  saw  a  martin  in  a  sheltered  bottom  ;  the 
sun  shone  warm,  and  the  bird  was  hawking  briskly 
after  flies.  I  am  now  perfectly  satisfied  that  they 
do  not  all  leave  this  island  in  the  winter. 

You  judge  very  right,  I  think,  in  speaking  with 
reserve  and  caution  concerning  the  cures  done  by 
toads ;  for,  let  people  advance  what  they  will  on 
such  subjects,  yet  there  is  such  a  propensity  in 
mankind  towards  deceiving  and  being  deceived, 
that  one  cannot  safely  relate  anything  from  com- 
mon report,  especially  in  print,  without  expressing 
some  degree  of  doubt  and  suspicion. 

Your  approbation  with  regard  to  my  new  dis- 
covery of  the  migration  of  the  ringousel  gives  me 
satisfaction  ;  and  I  find  you  concur  with  me  in 
suspecting  that  they  are  foreign  birds  which  visit 
us.  You  will  be  sure,  I  hope,  not  to  omit  to  make 
inquiry  whether  your  ringousels  leave  your  rocks 
in  the  autumn.  What  puzzles  me  most  is  the 
very  short  stay  they  make  with  us,  for  in  about 
three  weeks  they  are  all  gone.  I  shall  be  very 
curious  to  remark  whether  they  will  call  on  us  at 
their  return  in  the  spring,  as  they  did  last  year. 

I  want  to  be  better  informed  with  regard  to 
ichthyology.  If  fortune  had  settled  me  near  the 
seaside  or  near  some  great  river,  my  natural  pro- 
pensity would  soon  have  urged  me  to  have  made 
myself  acquainted  with  their  productions  ;  but  as  I 
have  lived  mostly  in  inland  parts,  and  in  an  upland 
district,  my  knowledge  of  fishes  extends  little  farther 
than  to  those  common  sorts  which  our  brooks  and 
lakes  produce. 


OF  SELBORNE.  83 


LETTER     XXII. 

Selborne,  January  2,  1769. 

Dear  Sir, — As  to  the  peculiarity  of  jackdaws 
building  with  us  under  the  ground,  in  rabbit-bur- 
rows, you  have,  in  part,  hit  upon  the  reason  ;  for, 
in  reality,  there  are  hardly  any  towers  or  steeples 
in  all  this  country.  And  perhaps,  Norfolk  except- 
ed, Hampshire  and  Sussex  are  as  meanly  furnished 
with  churches  as  almost  any  counties  in  the  king. 
dom.  We  have  many  livings  of  two  or  three  hun- 
dred pounds  a  year,  whose  houses  of  worship  make 
little  better  appearance  than  dovecots.  When  I 
first  saw  Northamptonshire,  Cambridgeshire,  and 
Huntingdonshire,  and  the  Fens  of  Lincolnshire,  I 
was  amazed  at  the  number  of  spires  which  present- 
ed themselves  in  every  point  of  view.  As  an  ad- 
mirer of  prospects,  1  have  reason  to  lament  this 
want  in  my  own  country,  for  such  objects  are  very 
necessary  ingredients  in  an  elegant  landscape. 

What  you  mention  with  respect  to  reclaimed 
toads  raises  my  curiosity.  An  ancient  author, 
though  no  naturalist,  has  well  remarked,  that 
"  Every  kind  of  beasts,  and  of  birds,  and  of  ser- 
pents, and  things  in  the  sea,  is  tamed,  and  hath 
been  tamed,  of  mankind."* 

It  is  a  satisfaction  to  me  to  find  that  a  green 
lizard  has  actually  been  procured  for  you  in  Dev- 
onshire, because  it  corroborates  my  discovery, 
which  I  made  many  years  ago,  of  the  same  sort, 
on  a  sunny  sandbank  near  Farnham,  in  Surrey. 
I  am  well  acquainted  with  the  south  hams  of  Dev- 

*  James  chap,  iii.,  7. 


84 


NATURAL   HISTORY 


onshire,  and  can  suppose  that  district,  from  its 
southerly  situation,  to  be  a  proper  habitation  for 
such  animals  in  their  best  colours. 

Since  the  ringousels  of  your  vast  mountains  do 
certainly  not  forsake  them  against  winter,  our  sus- 
picions that  those  which  visit  this  neighbourhood 
about  Michaelmas  are  not  English  birds,  but  driven 
from  the  more  northern  parts  of  Europe  by  the 
frosts,  are  still  more  reasonable  ;  and  it  will  be 
worth  your  pains  to  endeavour  to  trace  from  whence 
they  come,  and  to  inquire  why  they  make  so  very 
short  a  stay. 

In  your  account  of  your  error  with  regard  to  the 
two  species  of  Herons,  you  incidentally  gave  me 


great  entertainment  in  your  description  of  the  her- 
onry at  Cressi  Hall,  which  is  a  curiosity  I  never 
could  manage  to  see.  Fourscore  nests  of  such  a 
bird  on  one  tree  is  a  rarity  which  I  would  ride 
half  as  many  miles  to  have  a  sight  of.  Pray  be 
sure  to  tell  me  in  your  next  whose  seat  Cressi  Hall 


OF    SELBORNE.  85 

is,  and  near  what  town  it  lies.*  I  have  often 
thought  that  those  vast  extent  of  fens  have  never 
been  sufficiently  explored.  If  half  a  dozen  gentle- 
men, furnished  with  a  good  strength  of  water- 
spaniels,  were  to  beat  them  over  for  a  week,  they 
would  certainly  find  more  species. 

There  is  no  bird,  I  believe,  whose  manners  I 
have  studied  more  than  that  of  the  caprimulgus 
(the  Goat-sucker),  as  it  is  a  wonderful  and  curious 
creature  ;  but  I  have  always  found  that  though 
sometimes  it  may  chatter  as  it  flies,  as  I  know  it 
does,  yet  in  general  it  utters  its  jarring  note  sit- 
ting on  a  bough ;  and  I  have  for  many  a  half  hour 


watched  it  as  it  sat  with  its  under  mandible  quiver- 
ing, and  particularly  this  summer.  It  perches  usu- 
ally on  a  bare  twig,  with  its  head  lower  than  its 
tail,  in  an  attitude  well  expressed  by  your  draughts- 
man in  the  folio  British  Zoology.  This  bird  is 
most  punctual  in  beginning  its  song  exactly  at  the 
close  of  day ;   so  exactly,  that  I  have  known  it 

*  Cressi  Hall  is  near  Spalding,  in  Lincolnshire. 


86  NATURAL    HISTORY 

strike  up  more  than  once  or  twice  just  at  the  report 
of  the  Portsmouth  evening  gun,  which  we  can  hear 
when  the  weather  is  still.  It  appears  to  me  past 
all  doubt  that  its  notes  are  formed  by  organic  im- 
pulse, by  the  powers  of  the  parts  of  its  windpipe, 
formed  for  sound,  just  as  cats  purr.  You  will  cred- 
it me,  I  hope,  when  I  assure  you  that,  as  my  neigh- 
bours were  assembled  in  an  hermitage,  on  the  side 
of  a  steep  hill,  where  we  drank  tea,  one  of  these 
churn-owls  came  and  settled  on  the  cross  of  that 
little  straw  edifice,  and  began  to  chatter,  and  con- 
tinued his  note  for  many  minutes  ;  and  we  were  all 
struck  with  wonder  to  find  that  the  organs  of  that 
little  animal,  when  put  in  motion,  gave  a  sensible 
vibration  to  the  whole  building  !  This  bird  also 
sometimes  makes  a  small  squeak,  repeated  four  or 
five  times ;  and  I  have  observed  that  to  happen 
when  they  have  been  pursuing  each  other  through 
the  boughs  of  a  tree. 

It  would  not  be  at  all  strange  if  your  bat,  which 
you  have  procured,  should  prove  a  new  one,  since 
five  species  have  been  found  in  a  neighbouring  king- 
dom. The  great  sort  that  I  mentioned  is  certainly 
a  nondescript :  I  saw  but  one  this  summer,  and 
that  I  had  no  opportunity  of  taking. 

Your  account  of  the  Indian  grass  was  enter- 
taining. I  am  no  angler  myself;  but  inquiring  of 
those  that  are  what  they  supposed  that  part  of  their 
tackle  to  be  made  of,  they  replied,  "  Of  the  intes- 
tines of  a  silkworm." 

Though  I  must  not  pretend  to  great  skill  in  en- 
tomology, yet  I  cannot  say  that  I  am  ignorant  of 
that  kind  of  knowledge  ;  I  may  now  and  then,  per- 
haps, be  able  to  furnish  you  with  a  little  informa- 
tion. 


OF    SELBORNE.  87 

The  vast  rain  ceased  with  us  much  about  the 
same  time  as  with  you,  and  since  we  have  had  del- 
icate weather.  Mr.  Barker,  who  has  measured 
the  rain  for  more  than  thirty  years,  says  in  a  late 
letter  that  more  rain  has  fallen  this  year  than  in 
any  he  ever  attended  to ;  though  from  July,  1763, 
to  January,  1764,  more  fell  than  in  any  seven 
months  of  this  year. 


LETTER    XXIII. 

Selborne,  Feb.  2,  1769. 

Dear  Sir, — It  is  not  improbable  that  the  Guern- 
sey lizard  and  our  green  lizards  may  be  specifical- 
ly the  same  ;  all  that  I  know  is,  that  when,  some 
years  ago,  many  Guernsey  lizards  were  turned 
loose  in  Pembroke  College  garden,  in  the  Universi- 
ty of  Oxford,  they  lived  a  great  while,  and  seemed 
to  enjoy  themselves  very  well,  but  never  increased. 

I  return  you  thanks  for  your  account  of  Cressi 
Hall ;  but  recollect,  not  without  regret,  that  in  June, 
1746,  I  was  visiting  for  a  week  together  at  Spal- 
ding, without  ever  being  told  that  such  a  curiosity 
was  just  at  hand.  Pray  send  me  word  in  your 
next  what  sort  of  tree  it  is  that  contains  such  a 
quantity  of  herons'  nests,  and  whether  the  heronry 
consists  of  a  whole  grove  or  wood,  or  only  of  a 
few  trees. 

It  gave  me  satisfaction  to  find  we  accorded  so 
well  about  the  caprimulgus ;  all  I  contended  for 
was  to  prove  that  it  often  chatters  sitting  as  well  as 
flying,  and  therefore  the  noise  was  voluntary  and 


88  NATURAL    HISTORY 

from  organic  impulse,  and  not  from  the  resistance 
of  the  air  against  the  hollow  of  its  mouth  and 
throat. 

If  ever  I  saw  anything  like  actual  migration,  it 
was  last  Michaelmas  day.  I  was  travelling,  and 
out  early  in  the  morning  :  at  first  there  was  a  vast 
fog,  but,  by  the  time  that  I  was  got  seven  or  eight 
miles  from  home  towards  the  coast,  the  sun  broke 
out  into  a  delicate  warm  day.  We  were  then  on 
a  large  heath  or  common,  and  I  could  discern,  as 
the  mist  began  to  break  away,  great  numbers  of 
swallows  (hirundines  ruslicce)  clustering  on  the 
stunted  shrubs  and  bushes,  as  if  they  had  roosted 
there  all  night.  As  soon  as  the  air  became  clear 
and  pleasant,  they  were  all  on  the  wing  at  once, 
and,  by  a  placid  and  easy  flight,  proceeded  on  south- 
ward towards  the  sea  :  after  this  I  did  not  see  any 
more  flocks,  only  now  and  then  a  straggler. 

I  cannot  agree  with  those  persons  that  assert 
that  the  swallow  kind  disappear  some  and  some, 
gradually  as  they  come,  for  the  bulk  of  them  seem 
to  withdraw  at  once  ;  only  some  stragglers  stay  be- 
hind  a  long  while,  and  do  never,  there  is  the  great- 
est reason  to  believe,  leave  this  island.  Swallows 
seem  to  lay  themselves  up,  and  to  come  forth  in  a 
warm  day,  as  bats  do  continually  of  a  warm  even- 
ing, after  they  have  disappeared  for  weeks.  For  a 
very  respectable  gentleman  assured  me  that,  as  he 
was  walking  with  some  friends  under  Merton  wall, 
on  a  remarkably  hot  noon,  either  in  the  last  week 
in  December  or  the  first  week  in  January,  he  es- 
pied three  or  four  swallows  huddled  together  on  the 
moulding  of  one  of  the  windows  of  that  College. 
I  have  frequently  remarked  that  swallows  are  seen 


OF    SELBORNE.  89 

later  at  Oxford  than  elsewhere :  is  it  owing  to  the 
vast,  massy  buildings  of  that  place,  to  the  many 
waters  round  it,  or  to  what  else  ? 

When  I  used  to  rise  in  a  morning  last  autumn, 
and  see  the  swallows  and  martins  clustering  on  the 
chimneys  and  thatch  of  the  neighbouring  cottages, 
I  could  not  help  being  touched  with  secret  delight, 
mixed  with  some  degree  of  mortification  :  with  de- 
light, to  observe  with  how  much  ardour  and  punc- 
tuality those  poor  little  birds  obeyed  the  strong  im- 
pulse towards  migration,  or  hiding,  imprinted  on 
their  minds  by  their  great  Creator  ;  and  with  some 
degree  of  mortification  when  I  reflected  that,  after 
all  our  pains  and  inquiries,  we  are  yet  not  quite  cer- 
tain to  what  regions  they  do  migrate,  and  are  still 
farther  embarrassed  to  find  that  some  do  not  actu- 
ally migrate  at  all. 

These  reflections  made  so  strong  an  impression 
on  my  imagination,  that  they  became  productive  of 
a  composition  that  may  perhaps  amuse  you  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  when  next  I  have  the  honour  of 
writing  to  you. 


LETTER     XXIV. 

Selborne,  May  29,  1769. 
Dear  Sir, — The  scarabaus  fullo  I  know  very 
well,  having  seen  it  in  collections,  but  have  never 
been  able  to  discover  one  wild  in  its  natural  state. 
Mr.  Banks  told  me  he  thought  it  might  be  found  on 
the  seacoast. 

On  the  13th  of  April  I  went  to  the  sheepdown, 
where  the  ringousels  have  been  observed  to  make 

H2 


90  NATUR.iL   HISTORY 

their  appearance  at  spring  and  fall,  in  their  way, 
perhaps,  to  the  north  or  south,  and  was  much  pleas- 
ed to  see  three  birds  about  the  usual  spot.  We 
shot  a  cock  and  a  hen ;  they  were  plump  and  in 
high  condition.  In  their  crops  was  nothing  very 
distinguishable,  but  somewhat  that  seemed  like 
blades  of  vegetables  nearly  digested.  In  autumn 
they  feed  on  haws  and  yew-berries,  and  in  the  spring 
on  ivy-berries.  I  dressed  one  of  these  birds,  and 
found  it  juicy  and  well  flavoured.  It  is  remarkable 
that  they  make  but  a  few  days'  stay  in  their  spring 
visit,  but  rest  near  a  fortnight  at  Michaelmas. 
These  birds,  from  the  observations  of  three  springs 
and  two  autumns,  are  most  punctual  in  their  return, 
and  exhibit  a  new  migration  unnoticed  by  the  wri- 
ters, who  supposed  they  never  were  to  be  seen  in 
any  of  the  southern  counties. 

One  of  my  neighbours  lately  brought  me  a  new 
salicaria,  which  at  first  I  suspected  might  have 
proved  your  willow-lark,*  but  on  a  nicer  examina- 
tion it  answered  much  better  to  the  description  of 
that  species  which  you  shot  at  Revesby,  in  Lincoln- 
shire. My  bird  I  describe  thus  :  "  It  is  a  size  less 
than  the  grasshopper-lark ;  the  head,  back,  and 
covert  of  the  wings  of  a  dusky  brown,  without  those 
dark  spots  of  the  grasshopper-lark  ;  over  each  eye 
is  a  milk-white  stroke  ;  the  chin  and  throat  are 
white,  and  the  under  parts  of  a  yellowish  white ; 
the  feathers  of  the  tail  sharp  pointed ;  the  bill  is 
dusky  and  sharp,  and  the  legs  are  dusky,  the  hinder 
claw  long  and  crooked. "f     The  person  that  shot 

*  For  this  salicaria,  see  Letter  XXV.,  p.  81. 
t  Sylvia  phragmites,  Bechst.,  Sedge-warbler.— Selby's  Or- 
nith.-W.  J. 


OP    SELBORNE.  91 

it  says  that  it  sung  so  like  a  reed-sparrow  that  he 
took  it  for  one,  and  that  it  sings  all  night ;  but  this 
account  merits  farther  inquiry.  For  my  part,  I 
suspect  it  is  a  second  sort  of  locustella,  hinted  at  by 
Dr.  Derham  in  Ray's  Letters  (see  p.  74).  He  also 
procured  me  a  grasshopper-lark. 

The  question  that  you  put  with  regard  to  those 
genera  of  animals  that  are  peculiar  to  America, 
viz.,  How  they  came  there,  and  whence  ?  is  too  puz- 
zling for  me  to  answer,  and  yet  so  obvious  as  often 
to  have  struck  me  with  wonder.  If  one  looks  into 
the  writers  on  that  subject,  little  satisfaction  is  to  be 
found.  Ingenious  men  will  readily  advance  plaus- 
ible arguments  to  support  whatever  theory  they 
shall  choose  to  maintain  ;  but  then  the  misfortune 
is,  every  one's  hypothesis  is  each  as  good  as  anoth- 
er's, since  they  are  all  founded  on  conjecture.  The 
late  writers  of  this  sort,  in  whom  may  be  seen  all 
the  arguments  of  those  that  have  gone  before,  as  I 
remember,  stock  America  from  the  western  coast 
of  Africa  and  the  south  of  Europe,  and  then  break 
down  the  isthmus  that  bridged  over  the  Atlantic. 
But  this  is  making  use  of  a  violent  piece  of  ma- 
chinery :  it  is  a  difficulty  worthy  of  the  interposi- 
tion of  a  god !     "  Incredulus  odi." 

TO  THOMAS  PENNANT,  ESQ. 
THB    NATURALIST'S    SUMMER   EVENING   WALK. 

"  Equidem  credo,  quia  sit  divinitus  illis 
Ingenium."  Virg.,  Georg. 

When  day,  declining,  sheds  a  milder  gleam, 
What  time  the  Mayfly*  haunts  the  pool  or  stream  ; 

*  The  angler's  Mayfly,  the  ephemera  vulgata,  Linn.,  comes  forth 


92  NATURAL   HISTORY 

When  the  still  owl  skims  round  the  grassy  mead, 
What  time  the  timorous  hare  limps  forth  to  feed. 
Then  be  the  time  to  steal  adovvn  the  vale, 
And  listen  to  the  vagrant  cuckoo's*  tale ; 
To  hear  the  clamorous  curlewj"  call  his  mate, 
Or  the  soft  quail  his  tender  pain  relate  ; 
To  see  the  swallow  sweep  the  dark'ning  plain, 
Belated,  to  support  her  infant  train  ; 
To  mark  the  swift  in  rapid,  giddy  ring^ 
Dash  round  the  steeple,  unsubdued  of  wing  : 
Amusive  birds  !  say,  where  your  hid  retreat, 
When  the  frost  rages  and  the  tempests  beat  ? 
Whence  your  return,  by  such  nice  instinct  led, 
When  Spring,  soft  season,  lifts  her  bloomy  head  ? 
Such  baffled  searches  mock  man's  prying  pride, 
The  God  of  Nature  is  your  secret  guide  ! 

While  deep'ning  shades  obscure  the  face  of  day, 
To  yonder  bench,  leaf-sheltered,  let  us  stray, 
Till  blended  objects  fail  the  swimming  sight, 
And  all  the  fading  landscape  sinks  in  night ; 
To  hear  the  drowsy  dorr  come  brushing  by 
With  buzzing  wing,  or  the  shrill  cricket;}:  cry ; 
To  see  the  feeding  bat  glance  through  the  wood, 
To  catch  the  distant  falling  of  the  flood  ; 
While  o'er  the  cliff  the  awaken'd  churn-owl  hung, 
Through  the  still  gloom  protracts  his  chattering 
song; 

from  its  aurelia  state,  and  emerges  out  of  the  water  about  six  in 
the  evening,  and  dies  about  eleven  at  night,  determining  the  date 
of  its  fly  state  in  about  five  or  six  hours.  They  usually  begin  to 
appear  about  the  4th  of  June,  and  continue  in  succession  for  near 
a  fortnight. — See  Swammerdam,  Derham,  Scopoli,  &c. 

*  Vagrant  cuckoo;  so  called,  because,  being  tied  down  by  no 
incubation  or  attendance  about  the  nutrition  of  its  young,  it 
wanders  without  control. 

f  Charadrius  cedicriemus.  X  Gryllus  campestris. 


OP    SELBORNE.  93 

While,  high  in  air,  and  poised  upon  his  wings, 
Unseen,  the  soft,  enamour'd  woodlark*  sings : 
These,  Nature's  works,  the  curious  mind  employ, 
Inspire  a  soothing,  melancholy  joy  : 
As  fancy  warms,  a  pleasing  kind  of  pain 
Steals  o'er  the  cheek,  and  thrills  the  creeping  vein ! 
Each  rural  sight,  each  sound,  each  smell  com- 
bine ; 
The  tinkling  sheepbell,  or  the  breath  of  kine  ; 
The  new-mown  hay,  that  scents  the  swelling  breeze, 
Or  cottage  chimney  smoking  through  the  trees. 


LETTER   XXV. 

Selborne,  Aug.  30, 1769. 
Dear  Sir, — It  gives  me  satisfaction  to  find  that 
my  account  of  the  ousel  migration  pleases  you. 
You  put  a  very  shrewd  question  when  you  ask  me 
how  I  know  that  their  autumnal  migration  is  south, 
ward.  Were  not  candour  and  openness  the  very 
life  of  natural  history,  I  should  pass  over  this  query 
just  as  a  sly  commentator  does  over  a  crabbed 
passage  in  a  classic  ;  but  common  ingenuousness 
obliges  me  to  confess,  not  without  some  degree  of 
shame,  that  I  only  reasoned  in  that  case  from  anal- 
ogy. For,  as  all  other  autumnal  birds  migrate 
from  the  northward  to  us  to  partake  of  our  milder 
winters,  and  return  to  the  northward  again  when 
the  rigorous  cold  abates,  so  I  concluded  that  the 
ringousels  did  the  same,  as  well  as  their  congeners 

*  In  hot  summer  nights,  woodlarks  soar  to  a  prodigious  height, 
and  hang  singing  in  the  air. 


94  NATURAL    HISTORY 

the  fieldfares,  especially  as  ringousels  are  known  to 
haunt  cold,  mountainous  countries  ;  but  I  have  good 
reason  to  suspect  since  that  they  may  come  to  ua 
from  the  westward,  because  I  hear  from  good  au- 
thority that  they  are  found  on  Dartmoor,  and  that 
they  forsake  that  wild  district  about  the  time  that 
our  visiters  appear,  and  do  not  return  till  late  in  the 
spring. 

I  have  taken  a  great  deal  of  pains  about  your 
salicaria  and  mine,  with  a  white  stroke  over  its 
eye.  I  have  surveyed  it  alive  and  dead,  and  have 
procured  several  specimens,  and  am  perfectly  per- 
suaded myself  (and  trust  you  will  soon  be  convin- 
ced of  the  same)  that  it  is  no  more  nor  less  than 
the  passer  arundinaceus  minor  of  Ray.*  This  bird, 
by  some  means  or  other,  seems  to  be  entirely 
omitted  in  the  British  Zoology ;  and  one  reason 
probably  was,  because  it  is  so  strangely  classed  in 
Ray,  who  ranges  it  among  his  pici  affines.  It 
ought,  no  doubt,  to  have  gone  among  his  avicula 
caudd  unicolore,  and  among  your  slender-billed 
small  birds  of  the  same  division.  Linnaeus  might 
with  great  propriety  have  put  it  into  his  genus  of 
motacilla  ;  and  the  motacilla  salicaria  of  his  Fauna 
Suecica  seems  to  come  the  nearest  to  it.  It  is  no 
uncommon  bird,  haunting  the  sides  of  ponds  and 
rivers  where  there  is  covert,  and  the  reeds  and 
sedges  of  moors.  The  country  people  in  some 
places  call  it  the  sedgebird.  It  sings  incessantly 
night  and  day  during  the  nesting  time,  imitating 
the  note  of  a  sparrow,  a  swallow,  a  skylark,  and  has 
a  strange  hurrying  manner  in  its  song.  My  speci- 
mens correspond  most  minutely  to  the  description 
*  See  p.  78. 


OF    SELBORNE.  95 

of  your  fen-salicaria  shot  near  Revesby.  Mr.  Ray 
has  given  an  excellent  characteristic  of  it  when  he 
says,  "  Rostrum  et  pedes  in  Mc  aviculd  multo  majores 
sunt  qudm  pro  corporis  ratione"* 

I  have  got  you  the  egg  of  an  cedicnemus,  or  stone 
curlew,  which  was  picked  up  in  a  fallow  on  the 
naked  ground  ;  there  were  two,  but  the  finder  inad- 
vertently crushed  one  with  his  foot  before  he  saw 
them. 

A  gentleman  sent  me  lately  a  fine  specimen  of 
the  lanius  minor  cinerascens  cum  macula  in  scapulis 
albd,  Raii,  which  is  a  bird  that,  at  the  time  of  your 
publishing  your  two  first  volumes  of  British  Zoolo- 
gy, I  find  you  had  not  seen.  You  have  described  it 
well  from  Edward's  drawing. 


LETTER   XXVI. 

Selborne,  Dec.  8, 1769. 
Dear  Sir, — I  was  much  gratified  by  your  com- 
municative letter  on  your  return  from  Scotland, 
where  you  spent,  I  find,  some  considerable  time,  and 
gave  yourself  good  room  to  examine  the  natural  cu- 
riosities of  that  extensive  kingdom,  both  those  of  the 
islands  as  well  as  those  of  the  Highlands.  The 
usual  bane  of  such  expeditions  is  hurry,  because 
men  seldom  allot  themselves  half  the  time  they 
should  do  ;  but,  fixing  on  a  day  for  their  return, 
post  from  place  to  place  rather  as  if  they  were  on  a 
journey  that  required  despatch,  than  as  philosophers 

*  The  beak  and  feet  in  this  little  bird  are  much  too  large  in 
proportion  to  the  body. 


96  NATURAL    HISTORY 

investigating  the  works  of  nature.  You  must  have 
made,  no  doubt,  many  discoveries,  and  laid  up  a 
good  fund  of  materials  for  a  future  edition  of  the 
British  Zoology,  and  will  have  no  reason  to  repent 
that  you  have  bestowed  so  much  pains  on  a  part 
of  Great  Britain  that  perhaps  was  never  so  well 
examined  before. 

It  has  always  been  matter  of  wonder  to  me  that 
fieldfares,  which  are  so  congenerous  to  thrushes 
and  blackbirds,  should  never  choose  to  lay  their 
eggs  in  England  :  but  that  they  should  not  think 
even  the  Highlands  cold  and  northerly,  and  seques- 
tered enough,  is  a  circumstance  still  more  strange 
and  wonderful.  The  ringousel,  you  find,  stays  in 
Scotland  the  whole  year  round,  so  that  we  have 
reason  to  conclude  that  those  migrators  that  visit 
us  for  a  short  space  every  autumn  do  not  come 
from  thence. 

And  here,  I  think,  will  be  the  proper  place  to 
mention,  that  those  birds  were  most  punctual  again 
in  their  migration  this  autumn,  appearing,  as  before, 
about  the  30th  of  September  ;  but  their  flocks  were 
larger  than  common,  and  their  stay  protracted 
somewhat  beyond  the  usual  time.  If  they  come  to 
spend  the  whole  winter  with  us,  as  some  of  their 
congeners  do,  and  then  left  us  as  they  do  in  spring, 
I  should  not  be  so  much  struck  with  the  occurrence, 
since  it  would  be  similar  to  that  of  the  other  winter 
birds  of  passage  ;  but  when  I  see  them  for  a  fort- 
night at  Michaelmas,  and  again  for  about  a  week  in 
the  middle  of  April,  I  am  seized  with  wonder,  and 
long  to  be  informed  whence  these  travellers  come, 
and  whither  they  go,  since  they  seem  to  use  our 
hills  merely  as  an  inn  or  baiting-place. 


OF    SELBORNE.  97 

Your  account  of  the  greater  brambling,  or  §now- 
fleck,  is  very  amusing ;  and  strange  it  is  that  such 
a  short-winged  bird  should  delight  in  such  perilous 
voyages  over  the  Northern  Ocean  !  Some  country 
people  in  the  winter  time  have  every  now  and  then 
told  me  that  they  have  seen  two  or  three  white 
larks  on  our  downs  ;  but,  on  considering  the  matter, 
I  began  to  suspect  that  these  are  some  stragglers  of 
the  birds  we  are  talking  of,  which  sometimes,  per- 
haps, may  rove  so  far  to  the  southward. 

It  pleases  me  to  find  that  white  hares  are  so  fre- 
quent on  the  Scottish  mountains,  and  especially  as 
you  inform  me  that  it  is  a  distinct  species  ;  for  the 
quadrupeds  of  Britain  are  so  few  that  every  new 
species  is  a  great  acquisition. 

The  eagle-owl,  could  it  be  proved  to  belong  to 
us,  is  so  majestic  a  bird  that  it  would  grace  our 
fauna  much. 

You  admit,  I  find,  that  I  have  proved  your  fen- 
salicaria  to  be  the  lesser  reed-sparrow  of  Ray  :  and 
I  think  you  may  be  secure  that  J  am  right ;  for  I 
took  very  particular  pains  to  clear  up  that  matter, 
and  had  some  fair  specimens  ;  but,  as  they  were 
not  well  preserved,  they  are  decayed  already.  You 
will,  no  doubt,  insert  it  in  its  proper  place  in  your 
next  edition.  Your  additional  plates  will  much  im- 
prove your  work. 

De  Buffon,  I  know,  has  described  the  water 
shrewmouse  ;  but  still  I  am  pleased  to  find  you 
have  discovered  it  in  Lincolnshire,  for  the  reason  I 
have  given  in  the  article  of  the  white  hare. 

As  a  neighbour  was  lately  ploughing  in  a  dry 
chalky  field,  far  removed  from  any  water,  he  turned 
out  a  water-rat,  that  was  curiously  laid  up  in  a 

I 


98  NATURAL   HISTORY 

hybemaculum,  artificially  formed  of  grass  and 
leaves.  At  one  end  of  the  burrow  lay  above  a 
gallon  of  potatoes  regularly  stowed,  on  which  it 
was  to  have  supported  itself  for  the  winter.  But 
the  difficulty  with  me  is  how  this  amphxbius  mus 
came  to  fix  its  winter  station  at  such  a  distance 
from  the  water.  Was  it  determined  in  its  choice 
of  that  place  by  the  mere  accident  of  finding  the 
potatoes  which  were  planted  there  ?  or  is  it  the 
constant  practice  of  the  aquatic  rat  to  forsake  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  water  in  the  colder  months? 

Though  I  delight  very  little  in  analogous  reason, 
ing,  knowing  how  fallacious  it  is  with  respect  to 
natural  history,  yet  in  the  following  instance  I 
cannot  help  being  inclined  to  think  it  may  conduce 
towards  the  explanation  of  a  difficulty  that  I  have 
mentioned  before,  with  respect  to  the  invariable 
early  retreat  of  the  hirundo  apus,  or  swift,  so  many 
weeks  before  its  congeners  ;  and  that  not  only  with 
us,  but  also  in  Andalusia,  where  they  also  begin  to 
retire  about  the  beginning  of  August. 

The  great  large  bat  (which,  by-the-by,  is  at  pres- 
ent a  nondescript  in  England,  and  what  I  have  never 
been  able  yet  to  procure)  retires  or  migrates  very 
early  in  the  summer  :  it  also  ranges  very  high  for 
its  food,  feeding  in  a  different  region  of  the  air ; 
and  that  is  the  reason  I  never  could  procure  one.* 
Now  this  is  exactly  the  case  with  the  swifts ;  for 
they  take  their  food  in  a  more  exalted  region  than 
the  other  species,  and  are  very  seldom  seen  hawk- 
ing for  flies  near  the  ground  or  over  the  surface  of 
the  water.    From  hence  I  would  conclude  that  these 

*  Mr.  White  first  noticed  the  existence  of  this  species  of  bat 
in  England. 


OP   SELBORNE. 


99 


hirundines  and  the  larger  bats  are  supported  by 
some  sorts  of  high-flying  gnats,  scarabs,  or phalcencB, 
that  are  of  short  continuance,  and  that  the  short 
stay  of  these  strangers  is  regulated  by  the  defect 
of  their  food. 

By  my  journal  it  appears  that  curlews  clamoured 
on  to  October  the  thirty-first,  since  which  I  have 
not  seen  or  heard  any.  Swallows  were  observed 
on  to  November  the  third. 


LETTER   XXVII. 

Selbome,  Feb.  22,  1770. 
Dear  Sir, — Hedgehogs  abound  in  my  gardens 
and  fields.  The  manner  in  which  they  eat  the 
roots  of  the  plantain  in  my  grasswalk  is  very  curi- 
ous :  with  their  upper  mandible,  which  is  much 
longer  than  their  lower,  they  bore  under  the  plant, 


and  so  eat  the  root  off  upward,  leaving  the  tuft  of 
leaves  untouched.  In  this  respect  they  are  service- 
able, as  they  destroy  a  very  troublesome  weed ; 
but  they  deface  the  walks  in  some  measure  by  dig- 


100  NATURAL   HISTORY 

ging  little  round  holes.  It  appears  that  beetles  are 
no  inconsiderable  part  of  their  food.  In  June  last 
I  procured  a  litter  of  four  or  five  young  hedgehogs, 
which  appeared  to  be  about  five  or  six  days  old  ; 
they,  I  find,  like  puppies,  are  born  blind,  and  could 
not  see  when  they  came  to  my  hands.  No  doubt 
their  spines  are  soft  and  flexible  at  the  time  of  their 
birth :  but  it  is  plain  that  they  soon  harden ;  for 
these  little  pigs  had  such  stiff  prickles  on  their 
backs  and  sides  as  would  easily  have  fetched  blood 
had  they  not  been  handled  with  caution.  Their 
spines  are  quite  white  at  this  age ;  and  they  have 
little  hanging  ears,  which  I  do  not  remember  to  be 
discernible  in  the  old  ones.  They  can,  in  part,  at 
this  age,  draw  their  skin  down  over  their  faces,  but 
are  not  able  to  contract  themselves  into  a  ball,  as 
they  do,  for  the  sake  of  defence,  when  full  grown. 
The  reason,  I  suppose,  is,  because  the  curious  mus- 
cle that  enables  the  creature  to  roll  itself  up  in  a 
ball  was  not  then  arrived  at  its  full  tone  and  firm- 
ness. Hedgehogs  make  a  deep  and  warm  hyber- 
naculum  with  leaves  and  moss,  in  which  they  con- 
ceal themselves  for  the  winter  ;  but  I  never  could 
find  that  they  stored  in  any  winter  provision,  as 
some  quadrupeds  certainly  do. 

I  have  discovered  an  anecdote  with  respect  to 
the  Fieldfare  (turdus  pilaris)  which  I  think  is 
particular  enough  ;  this  bird,  though  it  sits  on  trees 
in  the  daytime,  and  procures  the  greatest  part  of 
its  food  from  white-thorn  hedges ;  yea,  moreover, 
builds  on  very  high  trees,  as  may  be  seen  by  the 
Fauna  Suecica,  yet  always  appears  with  us  to  roost 
on  the  ground.  They  are  seen  to  come  in  flocks 
just  before  it  is  dark,  and  to  settle  and  nestle  among 


OF    SELBORNE. 


101 


the  heath  on  our  forest.     And,  besides,  the  larkers, 
in  dragging  their  nets  by  night,  frequently  catch 


them  in  the  wheat-stubbles  ;  while  the  bat-fowlers, 
who  take  many  redwings  in  the  hedges,  never  en- 
tangle any  of  this  species.  Why  these  birds,  in  the 
matter  of  roosting,  should  differ  from  all  their  con- 
geners, and  from  themselves  also  with  respect  to 
their  proceedings  by  day,  is  a  fact  for  which  I  am 
by  no  means  able  to  account. 

I  have  somewhat  to  inform  you  of  concerning 
the  moose  deer ;  but,  in  general,  foreign  animals 
seldom  fall  in  my  way  ;  my  little  intelligence  is  con- 
fined to  the  narrow  sphere  of  my  own  observations 
at  home. 


LETTER     XXVIII. 


Selbome,  March,  1770. 
On  Michaelmas  Day,  1768,  I  managed  to  get  a 
sight  of  the  female  Moose  belonging  to  the  Duke 

12 


102 


NATURAL    HISTORY 


of  Richmond,  at  Goodwood,  but  was  greatly  disap- 
pointed, when  I  arrived  at  the  spot,  to  find  that  it 


died,  after  having  appeared  in  a  languishing  way 
for  some  time,  on  the  morning  before.  However, 
understanding  that  it  was  not  stripped,  I  proceeded 
to  examine  this  rare  quadruped  ;  I  found  it  in  an 
old  greenhouse,  slung  under  the  belly  and  chin  by 
ropes,  and  in  a  standing  posture.  The  grand  dis- 
tinction between  this  deer  and  any  other  species 
that  I  have  ever  met  with  consisted  in  the  strange 
length  of  its  legs,  on  which  it  was  tilted  up  much 
in  the  manner  of  the  birds  of  the  grallce  order.  I 
measured  it  as  they  do  a  horse,  and  found  that, 
from  the  ground  to  the  wither,  it  was  just  five  feet 
four  inches,  which  height  answers  exactly  to  six- 
teen hands,  the  growth  that  few  horses  arrive  at : 
but  then,  with  this  length  of  legs,  its  neck  was  re- 
markably short,  no  more  than  twelve  inches ;  so 
that,  by  straddling  with  one  foot  forward  and  the 
other  backward,  it  grazed  on  the  plain  ground  with 
the  greatest  difficulty  between  its  legs:  the  ears 


OF   SELBORNE.  103 

were  vast  and  lopping,  and  as  long  as  the  neck  • 
the  head  was  about  twenty  inches  long,  and  ass-like  ; 
and  had  such  a  redundancy  of  upper  lip  as  I  never 
saw  before,  with  huge  nostrils.     This  lip,  travellers 
say,  is  esteemed  a  dainty  dish  in  North  America. 
It  is  very  reasonable  to  suppose  that  this  creature 
supports  itself  chiefly  by  browsing  of  trees  and  by 
wading  after  water-plants,  towards  which  way  of 
livelihood  the  length  of  legs  and  great   lip  must 
contribute  much.     I  have  read  somewhere  that  it 
delights  in  eating  the  nyt?iphce,  or  water-lily.     From 
the  fore  feet  to  the  belly  behind  the  shoulder  it  meas- 
ured three  feet  and  eight   inches;   the  length  of 
the  legs  before  and  behind  consisted  a  great  deal  in 
the  tibia,  which  was  strangely  long ;   but  I  forgot 
to  measure  that  joint  exactly.     Its  scut  seemed  to 
be  about  an  inch  long ;  the  colour  was  a  grizzly 
black ;  the  mane  about  four  inches  long ;  the  fore 
hoofs  were  upright  and  shapely,  the  hind  flat  and 
splayed.     The  spring  before  it  was  only  two  years 
old,  so  that,  most  probably,  it  was  not  then  come 
to  its  growth.     What  a  vast  tall  beast  must  a  full 
grown  stag  be !     I  have  been  told  some  arrive  at 
ten  feet  and  a  half!     This  poor  creature  had  at  first 
a  female  companion  of  the  same  species,  which 
died  the  spring  before.     I  should  have  been  glad 
to  have  examined  the  teeth,  tongue,  lips,  hoofs,  &c, 
minutely.     This  animal,  the  keeper  told  me,  seem- 
ed to  enjoy  itself  best  in  the  extreme  frost  of  the 
former  winter.     In  the  house  they  showed  me  the 
horn  of  a  male  moose,  which  had  no  front  antlers, 
but  only  a  broad  palm,  with  some  snags  on  the 
edge.     The  noble  owner  of  the  dead  moose  pro- 
posed to  make  a  skeleton  of  her  bones. 


104  NATURAL   HISTORY 

Please  to  let  me  hear  if  my  female  moose  corre- 
sponds with  that  which  you  saw,  and  whether  you 
think  still  that  the  American  moose  and  European 
elk  are  the  same  creature. 


LETTER  XXIX. 

Selbome,  May  12, 1770. 

Dear  Sir, — Last  month  [April]  we  had  such  a 
series  of  cold,  turbulent  weather,  such  a  constant 
succession  of  frost  and  snow,  and  hail  and  tempest, 
that  the  regular  migration  or  appearance  of  the 
summer  birds  was  much  interrupted.  Some  did 
not  show  themselves  (at  least  were  not  heard)  till 
weeks  after  their  usual  time,  as  the  blackcap  and 
whitethroat ;  and  some  have  not  been  heard  yet,  as 
the  grasshopper-lark  and  largest  willow-wren.  As 
to  the  fly-catcher,  I  have  not  seen  it ;  it  is,  indeed, 
one  of  the  latest,  but  should  appear  about  this  time ; 
and  yet,  amid  all  this  meteorous  strife  and  war  of 
the  elements,  two  swallows  discovered  themselves 
so  long  ago  as  the  eleventh  of  April,  in  frost  and 
snow  ;  but  they  withdrew  quickly,  and  were  not 
visible  again  for  many  days.  House-martins,  which 
are  always  more  backward  than  swallows,  were  not 
observed  till  May  came  in. 

Among  the  monogamous  birds,  several  are  to  be 
found,  after  pairing  time,  single  ;  but  whether  this 
state  of  solitude  is  matter  of  choice  or  necessity,  is 
not  so  easily  discoverable.  When  the  house-spar- 
rows deprive  my  martins  of  their  nests,  as  soon  as 
I  cause  one  to  be  shot,  the  other,  be  it  cock  or  hen, 
presently  procures  a  mate,  and  so  for  several  times 
following. 


OP   SELBORNE.  105 

I  have  known  a  dovehouse  infested  by  a  pair  of 
white  owls,  which  made  great  havoc  among  the 
young  pigeons ;  one  of  the  owls  was  shot  as  soon 
as  possible,  but  the  surviver  readily  found  a  mate, 
and  the  mischief  went  on.  After  some  time  the 
new  pair  were  both  destroyed,  and  the  annoyance 
ceased. 

Again  :  I  knew  a  lover  of  setting,  an  old  sports- 
man, who  has  often  told  me  that,  soon  after  harvest, 
he  has  frequently  taken  small  coveys  of  partridges, 
consisting  of  cock-birds  alone  ;  these  he  pleasantly 
used  to  call  old  bachelors. 

There  is  a  propensity  belonging  to  common 
housecats  that  is  very  remarkable  ;  I  mean  their 
violent  fondness  for  fish,  which  appears  to  be  their 
most  favourite  food  ;  and  yet  nature  in  this  instance 
seems  to  have  planted  in  them  an  appetite  that,  un- 
assisted, they  know  not  how  to  gratify  :  for  of  all 
quadrupeds,  cats  are  the  least  disposed  towards 
water  ;  and  will  not,  when  they  can  avoid  it,  deign 
to  wet  a  foot,  much  less  to  plunge  into  that  ele- 
ment. 

Quadrupeds  that  prey  on  fish  are  amphibious : 
such  is  the  Otter,  which  by  nature  is  so  well 


106  NATURAL    HISTORY 

formed  for  diving  that  it  makes  great  havoc  among 
the  inhabitants  of  the  waters.  Not  supposing  that 
we  had  any  of  those  beasts  in  our  shallow  brooks, 
I  was  much  pleased  to  see  a  male  otter  brought  to 
me,  weighing  twenty-one  pounds,  that  had  been 
shot  on  the  bank  of  our  stream  below  the  Priory, 
'where  the  rivulet  divides  the  parish  of  Selborne 
from  Harteley  Wood. 


LETTER     XXX. 

Selborne,  Aug.  1,  1770. 

Dear  Sir, — The  French,  I  think,  in  general,  are 
strangely  prolix  in  their  natural  history.  What 
Linnaeus  says  with  respect  to  insects,  holds  good  in 
every  other  branch  :  "  verbositas  prcesentis  sceculif 
calamilas  artis."* 

Pray  how  do  you  approve  of  Scopoli's  new  work  1 
As  I  admire  his  Entomologia,  I  long  to  see  it. 

I  forgot  to  mention  in  my  last  letter  (and  had  not 
room  to  insert  in  the  former)  that  the  male  moose 
swims  from  island  to  island  in  the  lakes  and  rivers 
of  North  America.  My  friend  the  chaplain  saw 
one  killed  in  the  water  in  the  river  of  St.  Lawrence : 
it  was  a  monstrous  beast,  he  told  me,  but  he  did  not 
take  the  dimensions. 

When  I  was  last  in  town,  our  friend  Mr.  Bar- 
rington  most  obligingly  carried  me  to  see  many 
curious  sights.  As  you  were  then  writing  to  him 
about  horns,  he  carried  me  to  see  many  strange  and 
wonderful  specimens.     There  is,  I  remember,  at 

*  The  verbosity  of  the  present  age  is  the  calamity  of  art. 


OF    SELBORNE.  107 

Lord  Pembroke's,  at  Wilton,  a  horn-room  furnished 
with  more  than  thirty  different  pairs ;  but  I  have 
not  seen  that  house  lately. 

Mr.  Barrington  showed  me  many  astonishing 
collections  of  stuffed  and  living  birds  from  all 
quarters  of  the  world.  After  I  had  studied  over 
the  latter  for  a  time,  I  remarked  that  every  species 
almost  that  came  from  distant  regions,  such  as 
South  America,  the  coast  of  Guinea,  &c,  were 
thick-billed  birds  of  the  loxia  and  fringilla  genera; 
and  no  motacillce,  or  muscicapce  were  to  be  met  with. 
When  I  came  to  consider,  the  reason  was  obvious 
enough ;  for  the  hard-billed  birds  subsist  on  seeds 
which  are  easily  carried  on  board,  while  the  soft- 
billed  birds,  which  are  supported  by  worms  and 
insects,  or,  what  is  a  succedaneum  for  them,  fresh 
raw  meat,  can  meet  with  neither  in  long  and  tedious 
voyages.  It  is  from  this  defect  of  food  that  our 
collections  (curious  as  they  are)  are  defective,  and 
we  are  deprived  of  some  of  the  most  delicate  and 
lively  genera. 


LETTER    XXXI. 

Selborne,  Sept.  14,  1770. 
Dear  Sir, — You  saw,  I  find,  the  ringousels  again 
among  their  native  crags,  and  are  farther  assured 
that  they  continue  resident  in  those  cold  regions  the 
whole  year.  From  whence,  then,  do  our  ringou. 
sels  migrate  so  regularly  every  September,  and 
make  their  appearance  again,  as  if  in  their  return, 
every  April  ?     They  are  more  early  this  year  than 


108  NATURAL   HISTORY 

common,  for  some  were  seen  at  the  usual  hill  on 
the  fourth  of  this  month. 

An  observing  Devonshire  gentleman  tells  me 
that  they  frequent  some  parts  of  Dartmoor,  and 
build  their  nests  there,  but  leave  those  haunts  about 
the  end  of  September  or  beginning  of  October,  and 
return  again  about  the  end  of  March. 

Another  intelligent  person  assures  me  that  they 
are  found  in  great  abundance  all  over  the  Peak  of 
Derby,  and  are  called  there  torousels,  withdraw  in 
October  and  November,  and  return  in  spring.  This 
information  seems  to  throw  some  lignt  on  my  new 
migration. 

Scopoli's  new  work*  (which  I  have  just  pro- 
cured) has  its  merits,  in  ascertaining  many  of  the 
birds  of  the  Tyrol  and  Carniola.  Monographers, 
come  from  whence  they  may,  have,  I  think,  fair  pre- 
tence to  challenge  some  regard  and  approbation 
from  the  lovers  of  natural  history ;  for,  as  no  man 
can  alone  investigate  all  the  works  of  nature,  these 
partial  writers  may,  each  in  their  department,  be 
more  accurate  in  their  discoveries,  and  freer  from 
errors,  than  more  general  writers,  and  so,  by  de- 
grees, may  pave  the  way  to  a  universal  correct  nat- 
ural history.  Not  that  Scopoli  is  so  circumstan- 
tial and  attentive  to  the  life  and  conversation  of  his 
birds  as  I  could  wish  :  he  advances  some  false  facts, 
as  when  he  says  of  the  hirundo  urbica  that  "  pullos 
extra  nidum  non  nutrit.''^  This  assertion  I  know 
to  be  wrong,  from  repeated  observation  this  sum- 
mer ;  for  house-martins  do  feed  their  young  flying, 

*  Annus  Primus  Historico-Naturalis. 

t  "  The  house-martin  does  not  feed  its  young  outside  the 
nest." 


OF    SELBORNE.  109 

though,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  not  so  commonly 
as  the  house-swallow,  and  the  feat  is  done  in  so 
quick  a  manner  as  not  to  be  perceptible  to  indiffer- 
ent observers.  He  also  advances  some  (I  was  go- 
ing to  say)  improbable  facts ;  as  when  he  says  of 
the  woodcock  that  "  pullos  rostro  portat  fugiens 
ab  hoste."*  But  candour  forbids  me  to  say  abso- 
lutely that  any  fact  is  false  because  I  have  never 
been  witness  to  such  a  fact.  I  have  only  to  remark, 
that  the  long  unwieldy  bill  of  the  woodcock  is  per- 
haps the  worst  adapted  of  any  among  the  winged 
creation  for  such  a  feat  of  natural  affection. 


LETTER    XXXII. 

Selborne,  Oct.  29, 1770. 
Dear  Sir, — After  an  ineffectual  search  in  Lin« 
naeus,  Brisson,  &c,  I  begin  to  suspect  that  I  discern 
my  brother's  hirundo  byberna  in  Scopoli's  new-dis« 
covered  hirundo  rupestris,  p.  167.  His  description 
of  "  Supra  murina,  subtus  albida ;  rectrices  maculd 
ovali  alba  in  latere  interno;  pedes  nudi,  nigri;  ros. 
trum  nigrum  ;  remiges  obscuriores  quam  pluma  dor» 
sales ;  rectrices  remigibus  concolores ;  caudd  emar- 
ginata  nee  forcipatd"^  agrees  very  well  with  the 
bird  in  question ;  but  when  he  comes  to  advance 
that  it  is  "  statura  hirundinis  urbica"1[.  and  that 

*  "  It  carries  its  young  in  its  beak  when  flying  from  an  enemy.'' 
t  "  Mouse-coloured  above,  whitish  beneath  :  the  wings  having 
a  white  oval  spot  on  the  inside ;  the  feet  naked  and  black  ;  the 
beak  black;  the  pinions  darker  than  the  dorsal  plumage;  the 
wings  and  pinions  of  the  same  colour ;  the  tail  clear  and  not  in- 
dented." 

t  The  size  of  the  houee-martin. 

K 


110  NATURAL   HISTORY 

*'  definitio  hirundinis  riparice  Linnai  huic  quoque  con- 
venit"*  he  in  some  measure  invalidates  all  he  has 
said  ;  at  least  he  shows  at  once  that  he  compares 
them  to  these  species  merely  from  memory ;  for  I 
have  compared  the  birds  themselves,  and  find  they 
differ  widely  in  every  circumstance  of  shape,  size, 
and  colour.  However,  as  you  will  have  a  speci- 
men, I  shall  be  glad  to  hear  what  your  judgment  is 
in  the  matter. 

Whether  my  brother  is  forestalled  in  his  nonde- 
script or  not,  he  will  have  the  credit  of  first  discov- 
ering that  they  spend  their  winters  under  the  warm 
and  sheltery  shores  of  Gibraltar  and  Barbary. 

Scopoli's  characters  of  his  ordines  and  genera 
are  clear,  just,  and  expressive,  and  much  in  the 
spirit  of  Linnaeus.  These  few  remarks  are  the  re- 
sult of  my  first  perusal  of  Scopoli's  Annus  Primus, 

The  bane  of  our  science  is  the  comparing  one 
animal  to  the  other  by  memory.  For  want  of  cau- 
tion in  this  particular,  Scopoli  falls  into  errors.  He 
is  not  so  full  with  regard  to  the  manners  of  his  in- 
digenous birds  as  might  be  wished,  as  you  justly 
observe  :  his  Latin  is  easy,  elegant,  and  expressive, 
and  very  superior  to  Kramer's. f 

I  am  pleased  to  see  that  my  description  of  the 
moose  corresponds  so  well  with  yours. 

*  The  definition  agrees  with  that  of  Linnaeus's  hirundo  riparia. 
t  See  his  Elenchus  Vegetabilium  et  Animaliumper  Austriam  in- 
feriorem,  <fc. 


OF    SELBORNE.  HI 


LETTER     XXXIII. 


Selborne,  Nov.  26,  1770. 

Dear  Sir, — I  was  much  pleased  to  see,  among 
the  collection  of  birds  from  Gibraltar,  some  of  those 
short-winged  English  summer  birds  of  passage,  con- 
cerning whose  departure  we  have  made  so  much 
inquiry.  Now,  if  these  birds  are  found  in  Anda- 
lusia to  migrate  to  and  from  Barbary,  it  may  easily 
be  supposed  that  those  that  come  to  us  may  migrate 
back  to  the  Continent,  and  spend  their  winters  in 
some  of  the  warmer  parts  of  Europe.  This  is  cer- 
tain, that  many  soft-billed  birds  that  come  to  Gib- 
raltar appear  there  only  in  spring  and  autumn,  seem- 
ing to  advance  in  pairs  towards  the  northward  du- 
ring the  summer  months,  and  retiring  in  parties  and 
broods  towards  the  south  at  the  decline  of  the  year ; 
so  that  the  rock  of  Gibraltar  is  the  great  rendezvous 
and  place  of  observation,  from  whence  they  take 
their  departure  each  way  towards  Europe  or  Africa. 
It  is  therefore  no  mean  discovery,  I  think,  to  find 
that  our  small  short-winged  summer  birds  of  pas- 
sage are  to  be  seen,  spring  and  autumn,  on  the  very 
skirts  of  Europe ;  it  is  a  presumptive  proof  of  their 
emigrations. 

Scopoli  seems  to  me  to  have  found  the  hirundo 
melba,  the  great  Gibraltar  swift,  in  Tyrol,  without 
knowing  it.  For  what  is  his  hirundo  alpina  but  the 
afore-mentioned  bird  in  other  words  ?  Says  he, 
"  Omnia  prioris  (meaning  the  swift),  sed  pectus  ah 
bum  ;  paulo  major  priore."*     I  do  not  suppose  this 

*  It  is  in  all  things  like  the  former  bird  (the  swift)  except  that 
it  has  a  white  breast ;  it  is  a  little  larger  than  the  former  one. 


112  NATURAL  HJSTORY 

to  be  a  new  species.  It  is  true  also  of  the  melba, 
that  "  nidijicat  in  excelsis  Alpium  rupibus."*  Vid. 
Annum  Primum. 

My  Sussex  friend,  a  man  of  observation  and  good 
sense,  but  no  naturalist,  to  whom  I  applied  on  ac- 
count of  the  stone  curlew,  cedicnemus,  sends  me  the 
following  account :  "  In  looking  over  my  Nc  tural- 
ist's  Journal  for  the  month  of  April,  I  find  the  stone 
curlews  are  first  mentioned  on  the  17th  and  18th, 
which  date  seems  to  me  rather  late.  They  live 
with  us  all  the  spring  and  summer,  and  at  the  begin- 
ning of  autumn  prepare  to  take  leave,  by  getting  to- 
gether in  flocks.  They  seem  to  me  a  bird  of  pas- 
sage, that  may  travel  into  some  dry,  hilly  country 
south  of  us,  probably  Spain,  because  of  the  abun- 
dance of  sheepwalks  in  that  country ;  for  they  spend 
their  summers  with  us  in  such  districts.  This  con- 
jecture I  hazard,  as  I  have  never  met  with  any  one 
that  has  seen  them  in  England  in  the  winter.  I 
believe  they  are  not  fond  of  going  near  the  water, 
but  feed  on  earth-worms,  that  are  common  on  sheep- 
walks  and  downs.  They  live  on  fallows  and  lay- 
fields  abounding  with  gray  mossy  flints,  which  much 
resemble  their  young  in  colour,  among  which  they 
skulk  and  conceal  themselves.  They  make  no  nest, 
but  lay  their  eggs  on  the  bare  ground,  producing  in 
common  but  two  at  a  time.  There  is  reason  to 
think  their  young  run  soon  after  they  are  hatched, 
and  that  the  old  ones  do  not  feed  them,  but  only 
lead  them  about,  at  the  time  of  feeding,  which  for 
the  most  part  is  the  night."     Thus  far,  my  friend. 

In  the  manners  of  this  bird,  you  see,  there  is 
something  very  analogous  to  the  bustard,  whom  it 
*  It  builds  its  nest  in  the  high  rocks  of  the  Alps. 


OF    SELBORNE.  113 

also  somewhat  resembles  in  aspect  and  make,  and 
in  the  structure  of  its  feet. 

For  a  long  time  I  have  desired  my  relation  to 
look  out  for  these  birds  in  Andalusia,  and  now  he 
writes  me  word  that,  for  the  first  time,  he  saw  one 
dead  in  the  market  on  the  3d  of  September. 

When  the  cedicnemus  flies,  it  stretches  out  its  legs 
straight  behind  like  a  heron. 


LETTER   XXXIV. 

Selborne,  March  30, 1771. 

Dear  Sir, — There  is  an  insect  with  us,  espe- 
cially on  chalky  districts,  which  is  very  troublesome 
and  teasing  all  the  latter  end  of  the  summer,  getting 
into  people's  skins,  especially  those  of  women  and 
children,  and  raising  tumours,  which  itch  intolera- 
bly. This  animal  (which  we  call  a  harvest-bug)  is 
very  minute,  scarce  descernible  to  the  naked  eye, 
of  a  bright  scarlet  colour,  and  of  the  genus  ofacarus. 
They  are  to  be  met  with  in  gardens  on  kidney- 
beans  or  any  legumens,  but  prevail  only  in  the  hot 
months  of  summer.  Warreners,  as  some  have  as- 
sured me,  are  much  infested  by  them  on  chalky 
downs,  where  these  insects  swarm  sometimes  to  so 
infinite  a  degree  as  to  discolour  their  nets  and  give 
them  a  reddish  cast,  while  the  men  are  so  bitten  as 
to  be  thrown  into  fevers. 

There  is  a  small,  long,  shining  fly  in  these  parts, 
very  troublesome  to  the  housewife  by  getting  into 
the  chimneys,  and  laying  its  eggs  in  the  bacon 
while  it  is  drying.     The  eggs  produce  maggots, 

K2 


114  NATURAL  HISTORY 

called  jumpers,  which,  harbouring  in  the  gammons 
and  best  parts  of  the  hogs,  eat  down  to  the  bone 
and  make  great  waste.  This  fly  I  suspect  to  be  a 
variety  of  the  musca  putris  of  Linnaeus.  It  is  to  be 
seen  in  the  summer  in  farm  kitchens,  on  the  bacon- 
racks,  and  about  the  mantelpieces,  and  on  the  ceil- 
ings. 

The  insect  that  infests  turnips,  and  many  crops 
in  the  garden  (destroying  often  whole  fields  while 
in  their  seedling  leaves),  is  an  animal  that  wants  to 
be  better  known.  The  country  people  here  call  it 
the  turnip-fly  and  black  dolphin  ;  but  I  know  it  to 
be  one  of  the  coleoptera,  the  "  chrysomela  oleraceaf 
saltatoria,femoribusposticiscrassissimis."  In  very 
hot  summers  they  abound  to  an  amazing  degree, 
and,  as  you  walk  in  the  field  or  in  a  garden,  make 
a  pattering  like  rain  by  jumping  on  the  leaves  of 
the  turnips  or  cabbages. 

There  is  an  oestrus  known  in  these  parts  to  every 
ploughboy,  which,  because  it  is  omitted  by  Lin- 
naeus, is  also  passed  over  by  late  writers  ;  and  that 
is  the  curvicauda  of  old  Moufet,  mentioned  by  Der- 
ham  in  his  Physico-Theology,  p.  250  :  an  insect 
worthy  of  remark,  for  depositing  its  eggs  as  it  flies 
in  so  dexterous  a  manner  on  the  single  hairs  of  the 
legs  and  flanks  of  grass-horses.  But  then  Derham 
is  mistaken  when  he  advances  that  this  oestrus  is 
the  parent  of  that  wonderful  star-tailed  maggot 
which  he  mentions  afterward,  for  more  modern  en- 
tomologists have  discovered  that  singular  produc- 
tion to  be  derived  from  the  egg  of  the  musca  cha- 
mceleon. — See  Geoffroy,  t.  17,  f.  4. 

A  full  history  of  noxious  insects,  hurtful  in  the 
field,  garden,  and  house,  suggesting  all  the  known 


OP   SELBORNE.  115 

and  likely  means  of  destroying  them,  would  be  al- 
lowed by  the  public  to  be  a  most  useful  and  impor- 
tant work.  What  knowledge  there  is  of  this  sort 
lies  scattered,  and  wants  to  be  collected  ;  great  im- 
provements would  soon  follow,  of  course.  A  knowl- 
edge of  the  properties,  economy,  and,  in  short,  of 
the  life  and  conversation  of  these  animals,  is  a  ne- 
cessary step  to  lead  us  to  some  method  of  prevent- 
ing their  depredations. 

As  far  as  I  am  a  judge,  nothing  would  recom- 
mend entomology  more  than  some  neat  plates,  that 
should  well  express  the  generic  distinctions  of  in- 
sects according  to  Linnaeus  ;  for  I  am  well  assured 
that  many  people  would  study  insects,  could  they 
set  out  with  a  more  adequate  notion  of  those  dis- 
tinctions than  can  be  conveyed  at  first  by  words 
alone. 


LETTER     XXXV. 

Selbome,  1771. 

Dear  Sir, — Happening  to  make  a  visit  to  my 
neighbour's  Peacocks,  I  could  not  help  observing 
that  the  trains  of  those  magnificent  birds  appear  by 
no  means  to  be  their  tails,  those  long  feathers  grow, 
ing  not  from  their  uropygium,  but  all  up  their  backs. 
A  range  of  short,  brown,  stiff  feathers,  about  six 
inches  long,  fixed  in  the  uropygium,  is  the  real  tail, 
and  serves  as  the  fulcrum  to  prop  the  train,  which 
is  long  and  top-heavy  when  set  on  end.  When  the 
train  is  up,  nothing  appears  of  the  bird  before  but 
its  head  and  neck ;  but  this  would  not  be  the  case 


116  NATURAL    HISTORY 

were  these  long  feathers  fixed  only  in  the  back,  as 


may  be  seen  by  the  turkey-cock  when  in  a  strutting 
attitude.  By  a  strong,  muscular  vibration,  these 
birds  can  make  the  shafts  of  their  long  feathers 
clatter  like  the  swords  of  a  sword-dancer ;  they 
then  trample  very  quick  with  their  feet,  and  run 
backward. 


LETTER    XXXVI. 

Selborne,  1771. 

Dear  Sir, — The  summer  through  I  have  seen 
but  two  of  that  large  species  of  bat  which  I  call 
vespertilio  altivolans,  from  its  manner  of  feeding 
high  in  the  air. 

In  the  extent  of  their  wings  they  measured  four- 


OF   SELBORNE.  117 

teen  inches  and  a  half,  and  four  inches  and  a  half 
from  the  nose  to  the  tip  of  the  tail :  their  heads 
were  large,  their  nostrils  bilobated,  their  shoulders 
broad  and  muscular,  and  their  whole  bodies  fleshy 
and  plump.  Nothing  could  be  more  sleek  and  soft 
than  their  fur,  which  was  of  a  bright  chestnut  col- 
our ;  their  maws  were  full  of  food,  but  so  macera- 
ted that  the  quality  could  not  be  distinguished ; 
their  livers,  kidneys,  and  hearts  were  large,  and 
their  bowels  covered  with  fat.  They  weighed 
each,  when  entire,  full  one  ounce  and  one  drachm. 
Within  the  ear  there  was  somewhat  of  a  peculiar 
structure  that  I  did  not  understand  perfectly,  but 
refer  it  to  the  observation  of  the  curious  anato- 
mist. These  creatures  send  forth  a  very  rancid 
and  offensive  smell. 


LETTER    XXXVII. 

Selbome,  1771. 
Dear  Sir, — On  the  twelfth  of  July  I  had  a  fair 
opportunity  of  contemplating  the  motions  of  the 
caprimulgus,  or  fern-owl,  as  it  was  playing  round  a 
large  oak  that  swarmed  with  scardbcti  solstitiales, 
or  fern-chafers.*     The  powers  of  its  wing  were 

*  We  find  the  following  additional  information  regarding  the 
goat-sucker  in  Mr.  White's  Miscellaneous  Observations:  "A 
fern-owl  this  evening  (August  27)  showed  off,  in  a  very  unusual 
and  entertaining  manner,  by  hawking  round  the  circumference 
of  my  great  spreading  oak  for  twenty  times  following,  keeping 
mostly  close  to  the  grass,  but  occasionally  glancing  up  among 
the  boughs  of  the  tree.  This  amusing  bird  was  then  in  pursuit 
of  a  brood  of  some  particular  phalcena  belonging  to  the  oak,  and 
exhibited  on  the  occasion  a  command  of  wing  superior,  I  think, 
to  the  swallow  itself. 


118  NATURAL    HISTORY 

wonderful,  exceeding,  if  possible,  the  various  evolu- 
tions and  quick  turns  of  the  swallow  genus.  But 
the  circumstance  that  pleased  me  most  was,  that  I 
saw  it  distinctly  more  than  once  put  out  its  short 
leg  while  on  the  wing,  and,  by  a  bend  of  the  head, 

"When  a  person,  approaches  the  haunts  of  fern-owls  in  an 
evening,  they  continue  flying  round  the  head  of  the  obtruder, 
and,  by  striking  their  wings  together  above  their  backs,  in  the 
manner  that  pigeons  called  twisters  are  known  to  do,  make  a 
smart  swap.  Perhaps  at  that  time  they  are  jealous  for  their 
young,  and  their  noise  and  gesture  are  intended  by  way  of  men- 
ace. Fern-owls  have  attachment  to  oaks,  no  doubt  on  account 
of  food ;  for  the  next  evening  we  saw  one  again  several  times 
among  the  boughs  of  the  same  tree,  but  it  did  not  skim  round 
its  stem  over  the  grass  as  on  the  evening  before.  In  May  these 
birds  find  the  scarabaus  melalontha  on  the  oak,  and  the  scarabceus 
solstitialis  of  midsummer.  These  peculiar  birds  can  only  be 
watched  and  observed  for  two  hours  in  the  twenty-four,  and 
then  in  a  dubious  twilight,  an  hour  after  sunset,  and  an  hour 
before  sunrise  " 

"  On  this  day  (July  14,  1789)  a  woman  brought  me  two  eggs 
of  a  fern-owl  or  eve-jar,  which  she  found  on  the  verge  of  the 
Hanger,  to  the  left  of  the  Hermitage,  under  a  beechen  shrub. 
This  person,  who  lives  just  at  the  foot  of  the  Hanger,  seems 
well  acquainted  with  these  nocturnal  swallows,  and  says  she  has 
often  found  their  eggs  near  that  place,  and  that  they  lay  only 
two  at  a  time  on  the  bare  ground.  The  eggs  were  oblong,  dusky, 
streaked  somewhat  in  the  manner  of  the  plumage  of  the  parent 
bird,  and  were  equal  in  size  at  each  end.  Fern-owls,  like  snipes, 
stone  curlews,  and  some  other  birds,  make  no  nest.  Birds  that 
build  on  the  ground  do  not  make  much  of  nests." 

"  Many  of  our  oaks  are  naked  of  leaves,  and  even  the  half,  in 
general,  have  been  ravaged  by  the  caterpillars  of  a  small  phalana, 
which  is  of  a  pale  yellow  colour.  These  insects,  though  of  a 
feeble  race,  yet,  from  their  infinite  number,  are  of  wonderful  ef- 
fect, being  able  to  destroy  the  foliage  of  whole  forests  and  dis- 
tricts. At  this  season  they  leave  their  animal,  and  issue  forth 
in  their  fly  state,  swarming  and  covering  the  trees  and  hedges. 
In  a  field  near  Greatham,  I  saw  a  flight  of  swifts  busied  in  catch- 
ing their  prey  near  the  ground,  and  found  they  were  hunting 
after  these  phalanai.  The  aurelia  of  this  moth  is  thin,  and  as 
black  as  jet,  and  lies  wrapped  up  in  a  leaf  of  the  tree,  which  is 
rolled  round  it,  and  secured  at  the  ends  by  a  web,  to  prevent  the 
maggot  from  falling  out." 


OF  SELBORNE.  119 

deliver  somewhat  into  its  mouth.  If  it  takes  any 
part  of  its  prey  with  its  foot,  as  I  have  now  the 
greatest  reason  to  suppose  it  does  these  chafers,  I 
no  longer  wonder  at  the  use  of  its  middle  toe,  which 
is  curiously  furnished  with  a  serrated  claw. 

Swallows  and  martins — the  bulk  of  them,  I  mean 
— have  forsaken  us  sooner  this  year  than  usual ;  for 
on  Sept.  the  22d  they  rendezvoused  in  a  neighbour's 
walnut-tree,  where  it  seemed  probable  they  had 
taken  up  their  lodgings  for  the  night.  At  the  dawn 
of  the  day,  which  was  foggy,  they  rose  all  together 
in  infinite  numbers,  occasioning  such  a  rushing  from 
the  stroke  of  their  wings  against  the  hazy  air  as 
might  be  heard  to  a  considerable  distance  ;  since 
that  no  flock  has  appeared,  only  a  few  stragglers. 

Some  swifts  stayed  late,  till  the  22d  of  August ; 
a  rare  instance !  for  they  usually  withdraw  within 
the  first  week.* 

On  September  the  24th,  three  or  four  ringousels 
appeared  in  my  fields  for  the  first  time  this  season. 
How  punctual  are  these  visiters  in  their  autumnal 
and  spring  migrations ! 


LETTER     XXXVIII. 

Selbome,  March  15,  1773. 
Dear  Sir, — By  my  journal  for  last  autumn  it 
appears  that  the  House-martins  stayed  very  late 
in  these  parts,  for  on  the  1st  of  October  I  saw  young 
martins  in  their  nests  nearly  fledged  ;  and  again,  on 
the  21st  of  October,  we  had,  at  the  next  house,  a 

*  See  Letter  XLVIII.,  Part  II. 


120  NATURAL   HISTORY 

nest  full  of  young  martins  just  ready  to  fly,  and  the 
old  ones  were  hawking  for  insects  with  great  alert- 
ness. The  next  morning  the  brood  forsook  their 
nest  and  were  flying  round  the  village.  From  this 
day  I  never  saw  one  of  the  swallow  kind  till  No- 
vember the  3d,  when  twenty,  or  perhaps  thirty, 
house-martins  were  playing  all  day  long  by  the  side 


of  the  Hanging  Wood  and  over  my  fields.  Did 
these  small  weak  birds,  some  of  which  were  nest- 
ling twelve  days  ago,  shift  their  quarters  at  this 
late  season  of  the  year  to  the  other  side  of  the  north- 
ern tropic  ?  Or,  rather,  is  it  not  more  probable  that 
the  next  church,  ruin,  chalk-cliff,  steep  covert,  or 
perhaps  sandbank,  lake,  or  pool  (as  a  more  north- 
ern naturalist  would  say),  may  become  their  hyber- 
naculum,  and  afford  them  a  ready  and  obvious  re- 
treat ? 

We  are  beginning  to  expect  our  vernal  migra- 
tions of  ringousels  every  week.  Persons  worthy 
of  credit  assure  me  that  ringousels  were  seen  at 
Christmas,  1770,  in  the  forest  of  Bere,  on  the  south- 
ern verge  of  this  county.    Hence  we  may  con- 


OF    SELBORNE.  121 

elude  that  their  migrations  are  only  internal,  and 

not  extended  to  the  Continent  southward,  if  they  do 

at  first  come  at  all  from  the  northern  parts  of  this 

island   only,  and  not  from  the  north  of  Europe. 

Come  from  whence  they  will,  it  is  plain,  from  the 

fearless  disregard  that  they  show  for  men  or  guns, 

that  they  have  been  little  accustomed  to  places  of 

much  resort.     Navigators  mention  that,  in  the  Isle 

of  Ascension  and  other  such  desolate  districts,  birds 

are  so  little  acquainted  with  the  human  form  that 

they  settle  on  men's  shoulders,  and  have  no  more 

dread  of  a  sailor  than  they  would  have  of  a  goat 

that  was  grazing.     A  young  man  at  Lewes,  in 

Sussex,  assured  me  that,  about  seven  years  ago, 

ringousels  abounded  so  about  that  town  in  the  an- 
sa 

tumn  that  he  killed  sixteen  himself  in  one  afternoon : 
he  added  farther,  that  some  had  appeared  since  in 
every  autumn  ;  but  he  could  not  find  that  any  had 
been  observed  before  the  season  in  which  he  shot 
so  many.  I  myself  have  found  these  birds  in  little 
parties,  in  the  autumn,  cantoned  all  along  the  Sus- 
sex Downs,  wherever  there  were  shrubs  and  bushes, 
from  Chichester  to  Lewes,  particularly  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1770. 


LETTER     XXXIX. 

Selborne,  Nov.  9,  1773. 
Dear  Sir, — As  you  desire  me  to  send  you  such 
observations  as  may  occur,  I  take  the  liberty  of 
making  the  following  remarks,  that  you  may,  ac- 
cording as  you  think  me  right  or  wrong,  admit  or 

L 


122  NATURAL   HISTORY 

reject  what  I  here  advance  in  your  intended  new 
edition  of  the  British  Zoology. 

The  osprey*  was  shot  about  a  year  ago  at 
Frinsham  Pond,  a  great  lake  at  about  six  miles 
from  hence,  while  it  was  sitting  on  the  handle  of  a 
plough  and  devouring  a  fish  ;  it  used  to  precipi- 
tate itself  into  the  water,  and  so  take  its  prey  by 
surprise. 

A  great  ash-colouredf  butcher-bird  was  shot  last 
winter  in  Tisted  Park,  and  a  red-backed  butcher- 
bird at  Selborne.  They  are  rara  aves  in  this 
country. 

Crows:):  go  in  pairs  the  whole  year  round. 

Cornish  choughs^  abound  on  Beechy  Head,  and 
on  the  cliffs  of  the  Sussex  coast. 

The  common  wild  pigeon,||  or  stock-dove,  is  a 
bird  of  passage  in  the  south  of  England,  seldom 
appearing  till  towards  the  end  of  November ;  is 
usually  the  latest  winter  bird  of  passage.  Before 
our  beechen  woods  were  so  much  destroyed,  we 
had  myriads  of  them,  reaching  in  strings  for  a  mile 
together,  as  they  went  out  in  the  morning  to  feed. 
They  leave  us  early  in  spring :  where  do  they 
build  ? 

The  people  of  Hampshire  and  Sussex  call  the 
missel. birdlT  the  storm-cock,  because  it  sings  early 
in  the  spring,  in  blowing,  showery  weather.  Its 
song  often  commences  with  the  year ;  with  us  it 
builds  much  in  orchards. 

A  gentleman  assures  me  he  has  taken  the  nests 
of  ringousels**  on  Dartmoor  ;  they  build  in  banks 
on  the  sides  of  streams. 

*  British  Zoology,  vol.  i.,  p.  128.      t  P.  161.        t  P-  167. 
$  P.  198.  ||  P.  216.  t  P.  224.         **  P.  229-. 


OF    SELBORNE.  123 

Titlarks*  not  only  sing  sweetly  as  they  sit  on 
trees,  but  also  as  they  play  and  toy  about  on  the 
wing,  and  particularly  while  they  are  descending, 
and  sometimes  as  they  stand  on  the  ground. 

Adanson'sf  testimony  seems  to  me  to  be  a  very 
poor  evidence  that  European  swallows  migrate 
during  our  winter  to  Senegal ;  he  does  not  talk  at 
all  like  an  ornithologist,  and  probably  saw  only  the 
swallows  of  that  country,  which  I  know  build  within 
Governor  O'Hara's  hall  against  the  roof.  Had  he 
known  European  swallows,  would  he  not  have  men- 
tioned the  species? 

The  house-swallow  washes  by  dropping  into  the 
water  as  it  flies  :  this  species  appears  commonly 
about  a  week  before  the  house-martin,  and  about 
ten  or  twelve  days  before  the  swift. 

In  1772  there  were  young  house-martins  J  in  their 
nest  till  October  the  23d. 

The  swift§  appears  about  ten  or  twelve  days  later 
than  the  house-swallow,  viz.,  about  the  24th  or 
26th  of  April. 

Whinchats  and  stone-chatters||  stay  with  us  the 
whole  year. 

Some  wheatearsIT  continue  with  us  the  winter 
through. 

Wagtails,  all  sorts,  remain  with  us  all  the  winter. 

Bulfinches,**  when  fed  on  hempseed,  often  be- 
come wholly  black. 

We  have  vast  flocks  of  female  chaffinchesf  f  all 
the  winter,  with  hardly  any  males  among  them. 

When  you  say  that  in  summer-time  the  cock 

*  British  Zoology,  vol.  ii.,  p.  237.     t  P.  242.  t  P.  244. 

$  P.  245.  |)   P.  270,  271,  %  P.  269.  **  P.  300. 

ft  P.  306. 


124  NATURAL   HISTORY 

snipes*  make  a  bleating  noise  and  a  drumming 
(perhaps  I  should  have  rather  said  a  humming),  I 
suspect  we  mean  the  same  thing.  However,  while 
they  are  playing  about  on  the  wing,  they  certainly 
make  a  loud  piping  with  their  mouths ;  but  whether 
that  bleating  or  humming  is  ventriloquous,  or  pro- 
ceeds from  the  motion  of  their  wings,  I  cannot  say ; 
but  this  I  know,  that  when  this  noise  happens,  the 
bird  is  always  descending,  and  his  wings  are  vio- 
lently agitated. 

Soon  after  the  lapwingsf  have  done  hatching, 
they  congregate,  and,  leaving  the  moors  and  marsh- 
es, betake  themselves  to  downs  and  sheepwalks. 

Two  years  ago:}:  last  spring  the  little  auk  was 
found  alive  and  unhurt,  but  fluttering  and  unable 
to  rise,  in  a  lane  a  few  miles  from  Alresford,  where 
there  is  a  great  lake  ;  it  was  kept  a  while,  but  died. 

I  saw  young  teals§  taken  alive  in  the  ponds  of 
Wolmer  Forest  in  the  beginning  of  July  last,  along 
with  flappers,  or  young  wild  ducks. 

Speaking  of  the  swift,||  that  page  says  ■  it  drinks 
the  dew ;"  whereas  it  should  be,  "  it  drinks  on  the 
wing ;"  for  all  the  swallow  kind  sip  their  water  as 
they  sweep  over  the  face  of  pools  or  rivers :  like 
Virgil's  bees,  they  drink  flying :  "jlumina  summo 
libant."  In  this  method  of  drinking  perhaps  this 
genus  may  be  peculiar. 

Of  the  sedgebird,H  be  pleased  to  say  it  sings 
most  part  of  the  night ;  its  notes  are  hurrying,  but 
not  unpleasing,  and  imitative  of  several  birds,  as 
the  sparrow,  swallow,  skylark.  When  it  happens 
to  be  silent  in  the  night,  by  throwing  a  stone  or  clod 

*  British  Zoology,  vol.  ii.,  p.  358.       +  P.  360.       %  P.  409. 
$  P.  475.  ||  P.  15.  1T  P.  16. 


OF   SELBORNE.  125 

into  the  bushes  where  it  sits,  you  immediately  set  it 
a  singing ;  or,  in  other  words,  though  it  slumbers 
sometimes,  yet,  as  soon  as  it  is  awakened,  it  reas- 
sumes  its  song. 


LETTER    XL. 

Selborne,  Sept.  2,  1774. 

Dear  Sir, — Before  your  letter  arrived,  and  of 
my  own  accord,  I  had  been  remarking  and  compa- 
ring the  tails  of  the  male  and  female  swallow,  and 
this  ere  any  young  broods  appeared,  so  that  there 
was  no  danger  of  confounding  the  dams  with  their 
pulli;  and,  besides,  as  they  were  then  always  in 
pairs,  and  busied  in  the  employ  of  nidification,  there 
could  be  no  room  for  mistaking  the  sexes,  nor  the 
individuals  of  different  chimneys  the  one  for  the 
other.  From  all  my  observations,  it  constantly 
appeared  that  each  sort  has  the  long  feathers  in  its 
tail  that  give  it  that  forked  shape  ;  with  this  differ- 
ence, that  they  are  longer  in  the  tail  of  the  male 
than  in  that  of  the  female. 

Nightingales,  when  their  young  first  come  abroad 
and  are  helpless,  make  a  plaintive  and  a  jarring 
noise,  and  also  a  snapping  or  cracking,  pursuing 
people  along  the  hedges  as  they  walk  :  these  last 
sounds  seem  intended  for  menace  and  defiance. 

The  grasshopper-lark  chirps  all  night  in  the 
height  of  summer. 

Swans  turn  white  the  second  year,  and  build 
their  nests  the  third. 

Weasels  prey  on  moles,  as  appears  by  their  being 
sometimes  caught  in  moletraps. 

L2 


126  NATURAL    HISTORY 

Sparrow-hawks  sometimes  lay  their  eggs  in  old 
crows'  nests ;  and  the  kestrel  builds  in  churches 
and  ruins. 

There  are  supposed  to  be  two  sorts  of  eels  in  the 
island  of  Ely. 

Hen-harriers  build  on  the  ground,  and  seem  never 
to  settle  on  trees. 

When  redstarts  shake  their  tails,  they  move  them 
horizontally,  as  dogs  do  when  they  fawn  :  the  tail 
of  the  wagtail,  when  in  motion,  bobs  up  and  down, 
like  that  of  a  jaded  horse. 

Hedge-sparrows  have  a  remarkable  flirt  with 
their  wings  in  nesting  time  :  as  soon  as  frosty 
mornings  come,  they  make  a  very  piping,  plaintive 
noise. 

Many  birds  which  become  silent  about  Midsum- 
mer, reassume  their  notes  again  in  September ;  as 
the  thrush,  blackbird,  woodlark,  willow- wren,  &c. ; 
hence  August  is  by  much  the  most  mute  month  the 
spring,  summer,  and  autumn  through.  Are  birds 
induced  to  sing  again  because  the  temperament  of 
autumn  resembles  that  of  spring? 

LinnEeus  ranges  plants  geographically  :  palms 
inhabit  the  tropics,  grasses  the  temperate  zones, 
and  mosses  and  lichens  the  polar  circles  ;  no  doubt 
animals  may  be  classed  in  the  same  manner  with 
propriety. 

House-sparrows  build  under  eaves  in  the  spring ; 
as  the  weather  becomes  hotter,  they  get  out  for 
coolness,  and  rest  in  plum-trees  and  apple-trees. 
These  birds  have  been  known  sometimes  to  build  in 
rooks'  nests,  and  sometimes  in  the  forks  of  boughs 
under  rooks'  nests. 

As  my  neighbour  was  housing  a  rick,  he  observ- 


OF    SELBORNE.  127 

ed  that  his  dogs  devoured  all  the  little  red  mice 
that  they  could  catch,  but  rejected  the  common 
mice  ;  and  that  his  cats  ate  the  common  mice,  re- 
fusing the  red. 

Redbreasts  sing  all  through  the  spring,  summer, 
and  autumn.  The  reason  that  they  are  called  au- 
tumn songsters  is,  because  in  the  two  first  seasons 
their  voices  are  drowned  and  lost  in  the  general 
chorus ;  in  the  latter  their  song  becomes  distin- 
guishable. Many  songsters  of  the  autumn  seem  to 
be  the  young  cock  redbreast  of  that  year  :  notwith- 
standing the  prejudices  in  their  favour,  they  do 
much  mischief  in  gardens  to  the  summer  fruits.* 

The  titmouse,  which  early  in  February  begins  to 
make  two  quaint  notes,  like  the  whetting  of  a  saw, 
is  the  marsh  titmouse ;  the  great  titmouse  sings 
with  three  cheerful,  joyous  notes,  and  begins  about 
the  same  time. 

Wrens  sing  all  the  winter  through,  frost  excepted. 

House-martins  came  remarkably  late  this  year, 
both  in  Hampshire  and  Devonshire  :  is  this  circum- 
stance for  or  against  either  hiding  or  migration? 

Most  birds  drink  sipping  at  intervals,  but  pigeons 
take  a  long-continued  draught,  like  quadrupeds. 

Notwithstanding  what  I  have  said  in  a  former 
letter,  no  gray  crows  were  ever  known  to  build  their 
nests  on  Dartmoor  ;  it  was  my  mistake. 

The  appearance  and  flying  of  the  scarabaus  sol. 
stitialis,  or  fern-chafer,  commence  with  the  month 
of  July,  and  cease  about  the  end  of  it.  These 
scarabs  are  the  constant  food  of  caprimuJgi,  or  fern- 
owls, through  that  period.     They  abound  on  the 

*  They  eat  also  the  berries  of  the  ivy,  the  honeysuckle,  and 
the  euonymus  Europaus,  or  spindle-tree. 


128  NATURAL  HISTORY 

chalky  downs  and  in  some  sandy  districts,  but  not 
in  the  clays. 

In  the  garden  of  the  Black  Bear  Inn,  in  the  town 
of  Reading,  is  a  stream  or  canal  running  under  the 
stables  and  out  into  the  fields  on  the  other  side  of 
the  road  :  in  this  water  are  many  carps,  which  lie 
rolling  about  in  sight,  being  fed  by  travellers,  who 
amuse  themselves  by  tossing  them  bread ;  but,  as 
soon  as  the  weather  grows  at  all  severe,  these  fish 
are  no  longer  seen,  because  they  retire  under  the 
stables,  where  they  remain  till  the  return  of  spring. 
Do  they  lie  in  a  torpid  state  1  If  they  do  not,  how 
are  they  supported  ? 

The  note  of  the  Whitethroat,  which  is  continu- 


ally repeated,  and  often  attended  with  odd  gesticu- 
lations on  the  wing,  is  harsh  and  displeasing. 
These  birds  seem  of  a  pugnacious  disposition ;  for 
they  sing  with  an  erected  crest,  and  attitudes  of 
rivalry  and  defiance  ;  are  shy  and  wild  in  hatching- 
time,  avoiding  neighbourhoods,  and  haunting  lonely 
lanes  and  commons  ;  nay,  even  the  very  tops  of  the 
Sussex  Downs,  where  there  are  bushes  and  covert ; 


OF    SELBORNE.  129 

but  in  July  and  August  they  bring  their  broods  into 
gardens  and  orchards,  and  make  great  havoc  among 
the  summer  fruits. 

The  Blackcap  has,  in  common,  a  full,  sweet,  deep, 


loud,  and  wild  pipe  ;  yet  that  strain  is  of  short  con- 
tinuance, and  his  motions  are  desultory  ;  but  when 
that  bird  sits  calmly,  and  engages  in  song  in  earnest, 
he  pours  forth  very  sweet  but  inward  melody,  and 
expresses  great  variety  of  soft  and  gentle  modula- 
tions, superior,  perhaps,  to  those  of  any  of  our  war- 
blers, the  nightingale  excepted. 

Blackcaps  mostly  haunt  orchards  and  gardens  ; 
while  they  warble,  their  throats  are  wonderfully 
distended. 

The  song  of  the  Redstart*  is  superior,  though 

*  The  following  curious  account  of  the  Redstart  was  com- 
municated to  Dr.  John  Latham  by  J.  W.  Horsley,  Esq.,  of 
Chiswick  : 

"  Early  in  the  morning  of  the  16th  of  April,  1812,  as  I  was 
tending  a  bed  of  tulips,  which  is  one  of  my  stud  of  hobby-horses, 
I  perceived  a  little  bird  flickering  about  me,  so  near  and  so  often, 
that  I  verily  believe  I  could  have  caught  it  with  my  hands  if  I  had 
been  a  little  careful  to  do  so ;  however,  curiosity  at  length  caused 
me  to  watch  its  motions,  and  I  soon  perceived  she  was  bringing 


130 


NATURAL   HISTORY 


somewhat  like  that  of  the  whitethroat ;  some  birds 
have  a  few  more  notes  than  others.     Sitting  very 

materials  for  a  nest,  which  she  was  busily  depositing  in  the  fold 
of  a  tarpawling  which  I  used  for  the  nightly  covering  of  my 
flowers.  Vexed  to  think  that  the  labour  of  the  little  industrious 
bird  should  be  lost,  I  called  to  my  gardener,  and  ordered  him  to 
bring  something  of  the  cloth  kind,  whereupon  he  brought  me  a 
bag  of  coarse  calico  wrapping,  in  which  groceries  had  been  sent 
me ;  the  mouth  of  which  I  tied  up,  and  hung  it  upon  a  low  branch 
of  a  plum-tree,  very  near  to  the  tulip-bed,  dividing  the  seam  to 
make  an  entrance,  and  putting  two  sticks  across  to  keep  the 
bottom  open ;  having  so  done,  1  took  all  the  materials  (while  she 
sat  looking  on  and  panting  upon  the  rail)  which  the  bird  had 
brought  by  little  and  little  at  a  time,  holding  them  up,  as  it  were, 
to  let  her  see  my  drift,  and  put  them  by  slow  degrees  into  the  bag. 
After  attentively  observing  me  for  some  time,  and  the  male  also, 
who  had  by  this  time  appeared  in  sight,  and  by  whose  plumage  I 
discovered  that  the  birds  in  question  were  redstarts  (Sylv.  Phot' 
nicurus),  I  retired  to  a  small  distance,  the  female  watching  my 
motions  very  narrowly ;  and,  after  a  minute  or  two,  she  took  cour- 


age, flew  to  the  bag,  looked  in,  and  returned  to  the  rail  two  or 
three  times,  as  if  to  consider  what  she  should  do;  at  last  she  set 
heartily  to  work,  as  if  in  full  confidence,  completed  her  nest,  and 
never  afterward  seemed  to  mind  me  at  all,  though  I  examined 
her  operations  every  day  ;  she  laid  five  eggs,  all  which  she  hatch- 
ed, and  seemed  to  like  her  pendent  habitation  very  much  ;  and 


OF   SELBORNE.  131 

placidly  on  the  top  of  a  tall  tree  in  a  village,  the 
cock  sings  from  morning  to  night :  he  affects  neigh- 
bourhoods, and  avoids  solitude,  and  loves  to  build 
in  orchards  and  about  houses ;  with  us  he  perches 
on  the  vane  of  a  tall  Maypole. 

The  fly-catcher  is,  of  all  our  summer  birds,  the 

during  the  whole  time  of  her  incubation,  permitted  mine,  and  the 
visits  of  some  hundreds  of  persons,  who  came  to  see  my  flowers, 
which  are  of  the  choicest  kind,  without  ever  flying  off  the  nest ; 
the  male,  indeed,  always  seemed  a  little  uneasy  at  our  visits  to 
the  bag ;  but,  extraordinary  as  it  may  appear,  his  uneasiness  was 
trifling  when  1  was  of  the  party  ;  but  if  I  was  not  there,  his  fears 
were  increased  tenfold,  and  his  screams  and  courage  were  re- 
markable. I  could  almost  imagine  that,  if  any  one  had  attempt- 
ed to  rifle  the  nest,  he  would  have  attacked  them.  In  this  way 
the  family  throve,  and  grew  seemingly  very  comfortable  to  ma- 
turity, till,  on  the  7th  of  June,  three  of  the  young  birds  left  the 
nest,  and  the  other  two  on  the  8th.  When  they  were  on  the  point 
of  quitting  the  nest,  it  was  curious  to  observe  the  different  duties 
which  seemed  allotted  to  the  parents :  the  female  appeared  to 
have  the  exclusive  charge  of  procuring  food  for  the  young,  while 
the  male  watched  over  the  safety  of  the  brood.  After  the  8th  I 
saw  no  more  of  them. 

M  Upon  the  return  of  spring  in  1813,  being  engaged  in  the  same 
employment,  it  struck  me  that,  as  they  were  birds  of  passage,  I 
might  soon  expect  to  see  them  again.  I  therefore  hung  up  the 
bag  exactly  in  the  same  place  and  in  the  same  state  as  they  had 
left  it,  and  on  the  14th  of  April  I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  them 
return  and  put  their  house  into  repair  ;  and  in  the  same  manner, 
and  attended  with  the  same  circumstances,  they  brought  up  an- 
other family  of  five,  and  carried  them  off  as  before.  I  repeated 
my  experiment  the  third  year,  but,  whether  some  accident  had 
befallen  them,  or  whatever  was  the  cause,  they  came  no  more." 

Dr.  Latham,  in  answer  to  the  above  communication,  says, 
"  Your  account  of  the  Redstart  is  particularly  curious,  and  the 
more  so,  as  in  general  it  is  so  shy  a  bird  as  not  unfrequently  to 
forsake  the  nest  or  eggs  if  much  intruded  upon.  I  am  of  opinion, 
too,  that  many  birds  which  migrate  return  to  the  same  haunts  for 
years  following,  of  which  I  have  given  some  account  in  my  sev- 
enth volume,  p.  278  ;  and  I  have  observed  that,  if  a  martin  has 
made  a  nest  one  year  in  a  certain  angle  of  a  window,  although 
that  part  has  been  thoroughly  cleansed,  the  same  angle  has  been 
chosen  the  year  following,  and  I  make  no  doubt  by  the  same  in- 
habitants." 


132  NATURAL   HISTORY 

most  mute  and  the  most  familiar ;  it  also  appears 
the  last  of  any.  It  builds  in  a  vine  or  a  sweet- 
brier  against  the  wall  of  a  house,  or  in  the  hole  of 
a  wall,  or  on  the  end  of  a  beam  or  plate,  and  often 
close  to  the  post  of  a  door,  where  people  are  going 
in  and  out  all  day  long.  The  bird  does  not  make 
the  least  pretension  to  song,  but  uses  a  little  inward 
wailing  note  when  it  thinks  its  young  in  danger  from 
cats  and  other  annoyances :  it  has  but  one  brood, 
and  retires  early.* 

Selborne  parish  alone  can  and  has  exhibited  at 
times  more  than  half  the  birds  that  are  ever  seen  in 
all  Sweden ;  the  former  has  produced  more  than 
one  hundred  and  twenty  species,  the  latter  only 
two  hundred  and  twenty-one.  Let  me  add,  also, 
that  it  has  shown  near  half  the  species  that  were 
ever  known  in  Great  Britain. f 

On  a  retrospect,  I  observe  that  my  long  letter 
carries  with  it  a  quaint  and  magisterial  air,  and  is 
very  sententious ;  but  when  I  recollect  that  you 
requested  stricture  and  anecdote,  I  hope  you  will 
pardon  the  didactic  manner  for  the  sake  of  the  in- 
formation it  may  happen  to  contain. 


LETTER     XL  I. 

It  is  matter  of  curious  inquiry  to  trace  out  how 
those  species  of  soft-billed  birds,  that  continue  with 
us  the  winter  through,  subsist  during  the  dead 
months.     The  imbecility  of  birds  seems  not  to  be 

*  The  muscicapa  grisola,  Linn. 

f  Sweden  221,  Great  Britain  252  species. 


OF    SELBORNE.  133 

the  only  reason  why  they  shun  the  rigour  of  our 
winters ;  for  the  robust  wryneck  (so  much  resem- 
bling the  hardy  race  of  woodpeckers)  migrates, 
while  the  feeble  little  golden-crowned  wren,  that 
shadow  of  a  bird,  braves  our  severest  frosts  with- 
out availing  himself  of  houses  or  villages,  to  which 
most  of  our  winter  birds  crowd  in  distressful  sea- 
sons, while  this  keeps  aloof  in  fields  and  woods ; 
but  perhaps  this  may  be  the  reason  why  they  often 
perish,  and  why  they  are  almost  as  rare  as  any  bird 
we  know. 

I  have  no  reason  to  doubt  but  that  the  soft-billed 
birds  which  winter  with  us  subsist  chiefly  on  insects 
in  their  aurelia  state.  All  the  species  of  wagtails 
in  severe  weather  haunt  shallow  streams,  near  their 
spring-heads,  where  they  never  freeze  ;  and,  by 
wading,  pick  up  the  aurelias  of  the  genus  of  Phry- 
ganece,*  &c. 

Hedge-sparrows  frequent  sinks  and  gutters  in 
hard  weather,  where  they  pick  up  crumbs  and 
other  sweepings  ;  and  in  mild  weather  they  procure 
worms,  which  are  stirring  every  month  in  the  year, 
as  any  one  may  see  that  will  only  be  at  the  trouble 
of  taking  a  candle  to  a  grassplat  on  any  mild  winter's 
night.  Redbreasts  and  wrens  in  the  winter  haunt 
outhouses,  stables,  and  barns,  where  they  find 
spiders  and  flies  that  have  laid  themselves  up  du- 
ring the  cold  season.  But  the  grand  support  of  the 
soft-billed  birds  in  winter  is  that  infinite  profusion 
of  aurelise  of  the  lepidoptera  ordo,  which  is  fastened 
to  the  twigs  of  trees  and  their  trunks ;  to  the  pales 
and  walls  of  gardens  and  buildings  ;  and  is  found 

*  See  Derham's  Physico-Theology,  p.  235. 
M 


134  NATURAL   HISTORY 

in  every  cranny  and  cleft  of  rock  or  rubbish,  and 
even  in  the  ground  itself. 

Every  species  of  titmouse  winters  with  us  ;  they 
have  what  I  call  a  kind  of  intermediate  bill  between 
the  hard  and  the  soft,  between  the  Linnsean  genera 
of  frangilla  and  motacilla.  One  species  alone 
spends  its  whole  time  in  the  woods  and  fields,  never 
retreating  for  succour  in  the  severest  seasons  to 
houses  and  neighbourhoods,  and  that  is  the  delicate 
long-tailed  titmouse,  which  is  almost  as  minute  as 
the  golden-crowned  wren ;  but  the  Blue  Titmouse, 


or  nun  (parus  cceruleus),  the  colemouse  (parus  ater), 
the  great  black-headed  titmouse  {fringillago),  and 
the  marsh  titmouse  (parus  palustris),  all  resort,  at 
times,  to  buildings,  and  in  hard  weather  particularly. 
The  great  titmouse,  driven  by  stress  of  weather, 
much  frequents  houses,  and  in  deep  snows  I  have 
seen  this  bird,  while  it  hung  with  its  back  downward 
(to  my  no  small  delight  and  admiration),  draw  straws 
lengthwise  from  out  the  eaves  of  thatched  houses, 
in  order  to  pull  out  the  flies  that  were  concealed 


OF   SELBORNE.  135 

between  them,  and  that  in  such  numbers  that  they 
quite  defaced  the  thatch,  and  gave  it  a  ragged  ap- 
pearance. 

The  blue  titmouse,  or  nun,  is  a  great  frequent, 
er  of  houses,  and  a  general  devourer.  Besides  in- 
sects, it  is  very  fond  of  flesh,  for  it  frequently  picks 
bones  on  dunghills  ;  it  is  a  vast  admirer  of  suet,  and 
haunts  butchers'  shops.  When  a  boy,  I  have  known 
twenty  in  a  morning  caught  with  snap  mousetraps 
baited  with  tallow  or  suet.  It  will  also  pick  holes 
in  apples  left  on  the  ground,  and  be  well  entertained 
with  the  seeds  on  the  head  of  a  sunflower.  The 
blue,  marsh,  and  great  titmice  will,  in  very  severe 
weather,  carry  away  barley  and  oat  straws  from 
the  sides  of  ricks. 

How  the  wheatear  and  whinchat  support  them- 
selves in  winter  cannot  be  so  easily  ascertained, 
since  they  spend  their  time  on  wild  heaths  and 
warrens ;  the  former  especially,  where  there  are 
stone  quarries  :  most  probably  it  is  that  their  main- 
tenance arises  from  the  aurelise  of  the  lepidoptera 
ordo,  which  furnish  them  with  a  plentiful  table  in 
the  wilderness. 


LETTER     XLII. 

Selbome,  March  9,  1775. 
Dear  Sir, — Some  future  faunist,  a  man  of  for- 
tune, will,  I  hope,  extend  his  visits  to  the  kingdom 
of  Ireland  ;  a  new  field,  and  a  country  little  known 
to  the  naturalist.  He  will  not,  it  is  to  be  wished, 
undertake  that  tour  unaccompanied  by  a  botanist, 


136  NATURAL   HISTORY 

because  the  mountains  have  scarcely  been  sufficient- 
ly examined  ;  and  the  southerly  counties  of  so  mild 
an  island  may  possibly  afford  some  plants  little  to 
be  expected  within  the  British  dominions.  A  per- 
son of  a  thinking  turn  of  mind  will  draw  many  just 
remarks  from  the  modern  improvements  of  that 
country,  both  in  arts  and  agriculture,  where  premi- 
ums obtained  long  before  they  were  heard  of  with 
us.  The  manners  of  the  wild  natives,  their  super- 
stitions, their  prejudices,  their  sordid  way  of  life, 
will  extort  from  him  many  useful  reflections.  He 
should  also  take  with  him  an  able  draughtsman  ;  for 
he  must  by  no  means  pass  over  the  noble  castles 
and  seats,  the  extensive  and  picturesque  lakes  and 
waterfalls,  and  the  lofty,  stupendous  mountains,  so 
little  known,  and  so  engaging  to  the  imagination 
when  described  and  exhibited  in  a  lively  manner : 
such  a  work  would  be  well  received. 

As  I  have  seen  no  modern  map  of  Scotland,  I 
cannot  pretend  to  say  how  accurate  or  particular 
any  such  may  be  :  but  this  I  know,  that  the  best  old 
maps  of  that  kingdom  are  very  defective. 

The  great  obvious  defect  that  I  have  remarked 
in  all  maps  of  Scotland  that  have  fallen  in  my  way 
is  the  want  of  a  coloured  line  or  stroke  that  shall 
exactly  define  the  just  limits  of  that  district  called 
the  Highlands.  Moreover,  all  the  great  avenues 
to  that  mountainous  and  romantic  country  want  to 
be  well  distinguished.  The  military  roads  formed 
by  General  Wade  are  so  great  and  Roman-like  an 
undertaking  that  they  well  merit  attention.  My 
old  map,  Moll's  map,  takes  notice  of  Fort  William, 
but  could  not  mention  the  other  forts  that  have  been 
erected  long  since ;  therefore  a  good  representation 
of  the  chain  of  forts  should  not  be  omitted. 


OF    SELBORNE.  137 

The  celebrated  zigzag  up  the  Coryarich  must  not 
be  passsd  over.  Moll  takes  notice  of  Hamilton 
and  Drumlanrig,  and  such  capital  houses ;  but  a 
new  survey,  no  doubt,  should  represent  every  seat 
and  castle  remarkable  for  any  great  event,  or  cele- 
brated for  its  paintings,  &c.  Lord  Bredalbane's 
seat  and  beautiful  policy  are  too  curious  and  extra- 
ordinary to  be  omitted. 

The  seat  of  the  Earl  of  Eglintoun,  near  Glasgow, 
is  worthy  of  notice.  The  pine  plantations  of  that 
nobleman  are  very  grand  and  extensive  indeed. 


LETTER     XL  1 1  I. 

A  pair  of  honey-buzzards,  buteo  apivorus,  sive 
vespivorus,  Raii,  built  them  a  large  shallow  nest, 
composed  of  twigs,  and  lined  with  dead  beechen 
leaves,  upon  a  tall,  slender  beech,  near  the  middle 
of  Selborne  Hanger,  in  the  summer  of  1780.  In 
the  middle  of  the  month  of  June  a  bold  boy  climbed 
this  tree,  though  standing  on  so  steep  and  dizzy  a 
situation,  and  brought  down  an  egg,  the  only  one 
in  the  nest,  which  had  been  sat  on  for  some  time. 
The  egg  was  smaller,  and  not  so  round  as  those  of 
the  common  buzzard  ;  was  dotted  at  each  end  with 
small  red  spots,  and  surrounded  in  the  middle  with 
a  broad  bloody  zone. 

The  hen-bird  was  shot,  and  answered  exactly  to 
Mr.  Ray's  description  of  that  species  :  had  a  black 
cere,  short,  thick  legs,  and  a  long  tail.  When  on 
the  wing,  this  species  may  be  easily  distinguished 
from  the  common  buzzard  by  its  hawklike  appear- 
ance, small  head,  wings  not  so  blunt,  and  no  longer 
M2 


138  NATURAL   HISTORY 

tail.  This  specimen  contained  in  its  craw  some 
limbs  of  frogs,  and  many  gray  snails  without  shells. 
The  irides  of  the  eyes  of  this  bird  were  of  a  beau* 
tiful  bright  yellow  colour. 

About  the  10th  of  July  in  the  same  summer,  a 
pair  of  Spabrow-hawks  laid  their  eggs  in  an  old 


crow's  nest  on  a  low  beech  in  the  same  Hanger ; 
and  as  their  brood,  which  was  numerous,  began  to 
grow  up,  became  so  daring  and  ravenous  that  they 
were  a  terror  to  all  the  dames  in  the  village  that 
had  chickens  or  ducklings  under  their  care.  A  boy 
climbed  the  tree,  and  found  the  young  so  fledged 
that  they  all  escaped  from  him,  but  discovered  that 
a  good  house  had  been  kept ;  the  larder  was  well 
stored  with  provisions ;  for  he  brought  down  a 
young  blackbird,  jay,  and  house*martin,  all  clean 
picked,  and  some  half  devoured.  The  old  birds 
had  been  observed  to  make  sad  havoc  for  some 
days  among  the  new-flown  swallows  and  martins, 
which,  being  but  lately  out  of  their  nests,  had  not 
acquired  those  powers  and  command  of  wing  that 
enable  them,  when  more  mature,  to  set  such  ene- 
mies at  defiance. 


OP    SELBORNE.  139 


LETTER    XLIV. 

Selborne,  Nov.  30,  1780. 

Dear  Sir, — Every  incident  that  occasions  a  re- 
newal of  our  correspondence  will  ever  be  pleasing 
and  agreeable  to  me. 

As  to  the  wild  Wood-pigeon,  the  anas  or  vinago 


of  Ray,  I  am  much  of  your  mind,  and  see  no  reason 
for  making  it  the  origin  of  the  common  house-dove  ; 
but  suppose  those  that  have  advanced  that  opinion 
may  have  been  misled  by  another  appellation,  often 
given  to  the  cenas,  which  is  that  of  stock-dove. 

Unless  the  stock-dove  in  the  winter  varies  greatly 
in  manners  from  itself  in  summer,  no  species  seems 
more  unlikely  to  be  domesticated,  and  to  make  a 
house-dove.  We  very  rarely  see  the  latter  settle 
on  trees  at  all,  nor  does  it  ever  haunt  the  woods ; 
but  the  former,  as  long  as  it  stays  with  us,  from 
November  perhaps  to  February,  lives  the  same 
wild  life  with  the  ring-dove,  palumbus  torquatus  ; 


140  NATURAL   HISTORY 

frequents  coppices  and  groves,  supports  itself  chiefly 
by  mast,  and  delights  to  roost  in  the  tallest  beeches. 
Could  it  be  known  in  what  manner  stock-doves 
build,  the  doubt  would  be  settled  with  me  at  once, 
provided  they  construct  their  nests  on  trees,  like 
the  ring-dove,  as  I  much  suspect  they  do. 

You  received,  you  say,  last  spring,  a  stock-dove 
from  Sussex,  and  are  informed  that  they  sometimes 
build  in  that  county.  But  why  did  not  your  cor- 
respondent determine  the  place  of  its  nidification, 
whether  on  rocks,  cliffs,  or  trees  ?  If  he  was  not  an 
adroit  ornithologist,  I  should  doubt  the  fact,  because 
people  with  us  perpetually  confound  the  stock-dove 
with  the  ring-dove. 

For  my  own  part,  I  readily  concur  with  you  in 
supposing  that  house-doves  are  derived  from  the 
small  blue  rock-pigeon,  for  many  reasons.  In  the 
first  place,  the  wild  stock-dove  is  manifestly  larger 
than  the  common  house-dove,  against  the  usual  rule 
of  domestication,  which  generally  enlarges  the 
breed.  Again,  those  two  remarkable  black  spots 
on  the  remiges  of  each  wing  of  the  stock-dove, 
which  are  so  characteristic  of  the  species,  would 
not,  one  should  think,  be  totally  lost  by  its  being 
reclaimed,  but  would  often  break  out  among  its  de- 
scendants. But  what  is  worth  a  hundred  argu- 
ments is  the  instance  you  give  in  Sir  Roger 
Mostyn's  house-doves  in  Caernarvonshire,  which, 
though  tempted  by  plenty  of  food  and  gentle  treat- 
ment, can  never  be  prevailed  on  to  inhabit  their 
cote  for  any  time,  but  betake  themselves  to  the 
fastnesses  of  Ormshead,  and  deposite  their  young 
in  safety  amid  the  inaccessible  caverns  and  preci- 
pices of  that  stupendous  promontory. 


OF    SELBORNE.  141 

"  Naturam  expellas  furca . .  .  tamen  usque  recurret." 
I  have  consulted  a  sportsman,  now  in  his  seventy, 
eighth  year,  who  tells  me  that  fifty  or  sixty  years 
back,  when  the  beechen  woods  were  much  more 
extensive  than  at  present,  the  number  of  wood- 
pigeons  was  astonishing ;  that  he  has  often  killed 
near  twenty  in  a  day  ;  and  that,  with  a  long  wild- 
fowl piece,  he  has  often  shot  seven  or  eight  at  a 
time  on  the  wing,  as  they  came  wheeling  over  his 
head  ;  he  moreover  adds,  which  I  was  not  aware 
of,  that  often  there  were  among  them  little  parties 
of  small  blue  doves,  which  he  calls  rockiers.  The 
food  of  these  numberless  emigrants  was  beech-mast 
and  some  acorns,  and  particularly  barley,  which 
they  collected  in  the  stubbles.  But  of  late  years, 
since  the  vast  increase  of  turnips,  that  vegetable 
has  furnished  a  great  part  of  their  support  in  hard 
weather ;  and  the  holes  they  pick  in  these  roots 
generally  damage  the  crop.  From  this  food  their 
flesh  has  contracted  a  rancidness  which  occasions 
them  to  be  rejected  by  nicer  judges  of  eating,  who 
thought  them  before  a  delicate  dish.  They  were 
shot  not  only  as  they  were  feeding  in  the  fields, 
and  especially  in  snowy  weather,  but  also  at  the 
close  of  the  evening,  by  men  who  lay  in  ambush 
among  the  woods  and  groves  to  kill  them  as  they 
came  in  to  roost.*  These  are  the  principal  cir- 
cumstances relating  to  this  wonderful  internal  mi- 
gration, which  with  us  takes  place  towards  the  end 
of  November,  and  ceases  early  in  the  spring.  Last 
winter  we  had,  in  Selborne  High-wood,  about  a 

*  Some  old  sportsmen  say  that  the  main  part  of  these  flocks 
used  to  withdraw  as  soon  as  the  heavy  Christmas  frosts  were 
over. 


142  NATURAL   HISTORY 

hundred  of  these  doves  ;  but  in  former  times  the 

flocks  were  so  vast,  not  only  with  us,  but  all  the 

district  round,  that  on  mornings  and  evenings  they 

traversed  the  air,  like  rooks,  in  strings,  reaching 

for  a  mile  together.     When  they  thus  rendezvoused 

by  thousands,  if  they  happened  to  be  suddenly  roused 

from  their  roost-trees  on  an  evening, 

"  Their  rising  all  at  once  was  like  the  sound 
Of  thunder  heard  remote." 

It  will  by  no  means  be  foreign  to  the  present 
purpose  to  add,  that  I  had  a  relation  in  this  neigh- 
bourhood who  made  it  a  practice,  for  a  time,  when- 
ever he  could  procure  the  eggs  of  a  ring-dove,  to 
place  them  under  a  pair  of  doves  that  were  sitting 
in  his  own  pigeon-house,  hoping  thereby  to  teach 
his  own  doves  to  beat  out  into  the  woods  and  sup- 
port themselves  by  mast ;  the  plan  was  plausible, 
but  something  always  interrupted  the  success  ;  for, 
though  the  birds  were  usually  hatched,  and  some- 
times grew  to  half  their  size,  yet  none  ever  arrived 
at  maturity.  I  myself  have  seen  these  foundlings 
in  their  nest,  displaying  a  strange  ferocity  of  nature, 
so  as  scarcely  to  bear  to  be  looked  at,  and  snapping 
with  their  bills  by  way  of  menace.  In  short,  they 
always  died,  perhaps  for  want  of  proper  sustenance ; 
but  the  owner  thought  that  by  their  fierce  and  wild 
demeanour  they  frighted  their  foster-mothers,  and 
so  were  starved.* 

*  Food  for  the  ring-dove. — One  of  my  neighbours  shot  a  ring- 
dove on  an  evening  as  it  was  returning  from  feed  and  going  to 
roost.  When  his  wife  had  picked  and  drawn  it,  she  found  its 
craw  stuffed  with  the  most  nice  and  tender  tops  of  turnips. 

Hence  we  may  see  that  graminivorous  birds,  when  grain  fails, 
can  subsist  on  the  leaves  of  vegetables.  There  is  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  they  would  not  long  be  healthy  without ;  for  turkeys, 


OF    SELBORNE.  143 

Virgil,  as  a  familiar  occurrence,  by  way  of  simile, 
describes  a  dove  haunting  the  cavern  of  a  rock  in 
such  engaging  numbers  that  I  cannot  refrain  from 
quoting  the  passage  ;  and  John  Dryden  has  render, 
ed  it  so  happily  in  our  language,  that,  without  far- 
ther excuse,  I  shall  add  his  translation  also. 

"  Qualis  spelunca  subito  coramota  columba, 
Cui  domus,  et  dulces  latebroso  in  pumice  nidi, 
Fertur  in  arva  volans,  plausumque  exterrita  pennis 
Dat  tecto  ingentem — mox  aere  iapsa  quieto, 
Radit  iter  liquidum,  celeris  neque  commovet  alas." 

u  As  when  a  dove  her  rocky  hold  forsakes, 
Roused,  in  a  fright  her  sounding  wings  she  shakes ; 
The  cavern  rings  with  clattering ;  out  she  flies. 
And  leaves  her  callow  care,  and  cleaves  the  skies : 
At  first  she  flutters,  but  at  length  she  springs 
To  smoother  flight,  and  shoots  upon  her  wings." 

though  corn-fed,  delight  in  a  variety  of  plants,  such  as  cabbage, 
lettuce,  endive,  &c,  and  poultry  pick  much  grass,  while  geese 
live  for  months  together  on  commons,  by  grazing  alone. 

"  Naught  is  useless  made  : 
On  the  barren  heath 
The  shepherd  tends  his  flock,  that  daily  crop 
Their  verdant  dinner  from  the  mossy  turf 
Sufficient :  after  them  the  cackling  goose, 
Close  grazer,  finds  wherewith  to  ease  her  want." 

Philips's  Cyder. 
White,  Observations  on  Birds. 


THE 


NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  SELBORNE. 


PART    II. 

IN   A   SERIES  OF   LETTERS    ADDRESSED   TO 
THE  HON.  DAINES  BARRINGTON. 


LETTER    I. 

Selborne,  June  30,  1769. 
Dear  Sir, — When  I  was  in  town  last  month,  I 
partly  engaged  that  I  would  some  time  do  myself 
the  honour  to  write  to  you  on  the  subject  of  natu- 
ral history  ;  and  I  am  the  more  ready  to  fulfil  my 
promise,  because  I  see  you  are  a  gentleman  of 
great  candour,  and  one  that  will  make  allowances, 
especially  where  the  writer  professes  to  be  an  out- 
door naturalist ;  one  that  takes  his  observations 
from  the  subject  itself,  and  not  from  the  writings  of 
others. 

The  following  is  a  List  of  the  Summer  Birds  of  Passage  which  I 
have  discovered  in  this  neighbourhood,  ranged  somewhat  in  the  or~ 
der  in  which  they  appear  ; 

Raii  Nomina.  Usually  appears  about 

1   Wivneck       i  Jynx,  sive  torquil-  (  The    middle  of   March : 
'(      la \      harsh  note. 

2.  Smallest  wiM  Regulus  non  cris-\  March  23:  chirps  till  Sep- 
low-wren     .  \     tatus  .     .    .     .  (      tember. 

3.  Swallow       .     Hirundo  domestica    April  13. 

N 


146 


NATURAL   HISTORY 


Raii  Nomina. 


Usually  appeaa  about 

April  13. 

Ditto. 

Do. :  a  sweet,  wild  note. 

Beginning  of  April. 

Middle  of  April. 

Ditto  :  a  sweet,  plaintive 
note. 

Do. :  mean  note  :  sings  on 
till  September. 

Do. :  more  agreeable  song. 

End  of  March  :  loud  noc- 
turnal whistle. 


Middle  of  April:  a  small 
sibilous   note,   till   the 
end  of  Julv. 
About  April  27th. 
A  sweet  polyglot,  but  hur- 
rying :  it  has  the  notes 
of  many  birds. 
A  loud,  harsh  note,  crex, 

erex. 
Cantat  voce  stridida  locus- 
tee  :  end  of  April,  on  the 
tops  of  high  beeches. 
(  Beginning  of  May :  chat- 
<     ters  by  night  with  a  sin- 
(     gular  noise. 
fMay  12:     a  very   mute 
bird :  this  is  the  largest 
summer    bird    of  pas- 
l.     sage. 

*  A  man  brought  me  a  landrail  or  daker-hen,  a  bird  so  rare 
in  this  district  that  we  seldom  see  more  than  one  or  two  in  a 
season,  and  those  only  in  the  autumn.  This  is  deemed  a  bird 
of  passage  by  all  the  writers,  yet,  from  its  formation,  seems  to 
be  poorly  qualified  for  migration ;  for  its  wings  are  short,  and 
placed  so  forward  and  out  of  the  centre  of  gravity  that  it  flies  in 
a  very  heavy  and  embarrassed  manner,  with  its  legs  hanging 
down  ;  and  hardly  to  be  sprung  a  second  time,  as  it  runs  very 
fast,  and  seems  to  depend  more  on  the  swiftness  of  its  feet  than 
on  its  flying. 

Landrails  used  to  abound  formerly,  I  remember,  in  the  low, 
wet  beanfields  of  Christian  Malford,  in  North  Wilts,  and  in  the 
meadows  near  Paradise  Gardens  at  Oxford,  where  I  have  often 
heard  them  cry  crex,  crex. — White,  Observations  on  Birds. 


4.  Martin     . 

5.  Sand-martin 

6.  Blackcap 

7.  Nightingale 

8.  Cuckoo    .    . 

9.  Middle    wil- 
low-wren 

Hirundo  rustica    . 

Hirundo  riparia    . 

Atricapilla  .     .     . 

Luscinia      .     .     . 

Cuculus       .     .     . 
j  Regulus  non  cris- 
I      tatus   .... 

10.  Whitethroat 

Ficedulce  qffinis     . 

11.  Redstart      . 

Ruticilla      .     . 

12.  Stone  curlew 

OEdicnemus      .     . 

13.  Turtle-dove 

Turtur. 

14.  Grasshopper- 
lark     .    .    . 

(  Alauda  minima  lo- 
\      custoe  voce     .     . 

15.  Swift  .    .    . 

Hirundo  apus  .     . 

16.  Less  reed- 
sparrow  . 

(  Passer    arundina- 
\      ceus  minor     .     . 

17.  Landrail* 

<  Ortygometra    .     . 

18.  Largest  wil 
low-wren 

(  Regulus  non  cris- 
\      tatus   .     .     .     . 

19.  Goatsucker  $  n„         , 
or  fern-owl  \^nmulgus 


20.  Fly-catcher .    Stoparola    .    .    .<( 


OF    SELBORNE. 


147 


This  assemblage  of  curious  and  amusing  birds 
belongs  to  ten  several  genera  of  the  Linnaean  sys- 
tem, and  are  all  of  the  ordo  passeres  save  the  jynx 
and  cuculus,  which  are  pica,  and  the  charadrius 
(osdicjiemus)  and  rallus  (ortygometra),  which  are 
grallcR, 

These  birds,  as  they  stand  numerically,  belong 
to  the  Linnsean  genera : 

1 Jynx.  13,  Columba. 

2,  6,  7,  9,  10,  11,  16,  18,  Motacilla.  17,  Rallus. 

3,  4,  5,  15 Hirundo.  19,  Caprimulgus. 

8 Cuculus.  14,  Alauda. 

12     . Charadrius.         20,  Muscicapa. 

Most  soft-billed  birds  live  on  insects,  and  not  on 
grain  and  seeds,  and  therefore  at  the  end  of  sum- 
mer they  retire  ;  but  the  following  soft-billed  birds, 
though  insect-eaters,  stay  with  us  the  year  round : 


Redbreast 
Wren  .    . 


Raii  Nomina. 

Rubecula     .     .     . 
Passer  troglodytes 


Hedge-sparrow .    Curruca 


White  wagtail  . 
Yellow  wagtail 
Gray  wagtail     . 


Wheatear     .    . 

"Whinchat      .    . 
Stone-chatter    . 

Golden-crowned 
wren    .    .     . 


Motacilla  alba 
Motacilla  jlava 
Motacilla  cinerea  . 


CEnanthe    .     .     . 

CEnanthe  secunda. 
CEnanthe  tertia. 

>  Regulus  cristatus 


These  frequent  houses 
and  haunt  outbuildings 
in  the  winter ;  eat  spi- 
ders. 

Haunt  sinks  for  crumbs 
and  other  sweepings. 

These  frequent  shallow 
rivulets,  near  the  spring 
heads,  where  they  nev- 
er freeze :  eat  the  au- 
reliae  of  Phryganea. — 
The  smallest  birds  that 
walk. 

Some  of  these  are  to  be 
seen  with  us  the  winter 
through. 


(  This  is  the  smallest  Brit- 
J  ish  bird :  haunts  the 
j  tops  of  tall  trees  :  stays 
V     the  winter  through. 


148 


NATURAL   HISTORY 


A  List  of  the  Winter  Birds  of  Passage  round  this  neighbourhood, 
ranged  somewhat  in  the  order  in  which  they  appear. 

Raii  Nomina. 

fThis  is  a  new  migration, 
which  I  have  lately  dis- 
1.  Ringousel    .     Merula  torquata   .<(      covered  ahout  Michael- 
mas week,  and   again 


2.  Redwing 

3.  Fieldfare 

4.  Royston  crow 

5.  Woodcock   . 

6.  Snipe  .    .    . 

7.  Jack-snipe   . 

8.  Wood-pigeon 


Turdus  iliacus 
Turdus  pilaris 
Comix  cinerea 
Scolopax     .     . 

Gallinago  minor 
Gallinago  minima 

(Enas    .     .     . 


9.  Wild  swan 

10.  Wild  goose 

11.  Wild  duck 


.     Cygnus  ferus  . 
.     Anser  ferus 

(  Anas  torquata  mi 
' \      nor      .     .     . 

12.  Pochard  .     .     Anas  f era  fusca 

13.  Wigeon    .     .     Penelope 

14.  Teal,   builds^ 

with    us    in  (  /->  ,  , 

WolmerFor-^^"^    ■ 
J 
Cocothraustes  . 
Loxia 
(  Garrulus  Bohemi- 
)      cus 


\     about  the  14th  of  March 

About  Old  Michaelmas. 

Though  a  percher  by  day, 

roosts  on  the  ground. 
Most  frequently  on  downs 
Appears   about   Old  Mi- 
chaelmas. 
Some  snipes    constantly 
build  with  us. 

Seldom  appears  till  late  ; 

not  in  such  plenty  as 

formerly. 
On  some  large  waters. 


est  .    .    . 

Crossbeak 
Crossbill . 


On     our 
lakes. 


streams     and 


15 
16 

17.  Silktail 


( These  are  only  wander- 
ers, that  appear  occa- 
.'  {      sionally,  and  are  not  ob- 
servant of  any  regular 
V     migration. 

These  birds,  as  they  stand  numerically,  belong  to 
the  following  Linnsean  genera  : 

1,  2,  3,  Turdus.  9,  10,  11,  12,  13,  14,  Anas. 

4    .     .  Corvus.  15,  16 Loxia. 

5,  6,  7,  Scolopax.  17 Ampelis. 

8     .     .  Columba. 

Birds  that  sing  in  the  night  are  but  few  : 

_,.  ...      ,  t      •  •  ("  In  shadiest  covert  hid." 

Nightingale  .    .    Luscmia     .    .    .<     —Milton. 


OF    SELBORNE.  149 

Raii  Nomina* 

Woodlark     .    .    Alauda  arbor ea    .    Suspended  in  mid  air. 
Less    reed-spar-  (  Passer   arundina-  (  Among    reeds   and   wil- 
low .     .     .     .  (     ceus  minor    .     .  \      lows. 

I  shall  now  proceed  to  such  birds  as  continue  to 
sing  after  Midsummer;  but,  as  they  are  rather 
numerous,  they  would  exceed  the  bounds  of  this  pa- 
per ;  besides,  as  this  is  now  the  season  [end  of 
June]  for  remarking  on  that  subject,  I  am  willing 
to  repeat  my  observations  on  some  birds,  concern- 
ing the  continuation  of  whose  song  I  seem  at  pres- 
ent to  have  some  doubt. 


LETTER     II. 

Selborne,  Nov.  2,  1769. 

Dear  Sir, — When  I  did  myself  the  honour  to 
write  to  you  about  the  end  of  last  June,  on  the  sub- 
ject of  natural  history,  I  sent  you  a  list  of  the  sum- 
mer birds  of  passage  which  I  have  observed  in  this 
neighbourhood,  and  also  a  list  of  the  winter  birds 
of  passage  ;  I  mentioned,  besides,  those  soft-billed 
birds  that  stay  with  us  the  winter  through  in  the 
south  of  England,  and  those  that  are  remarkable 
for  singing  in  the  night. 

According  to  my  proposal,  I  shall  now  proceed 
to  such  birds  (singing-birds,  strictly  so  called)  as 
continue  in  full  song  till  after  Midsummer,  and 
shall  range  them  somewhat  in  the  order  in  which 
they  first  begin  to  open  as  the  spring  advances. 

Raii  Nomina. 

5  In  January,  and  continues 
to  sing  through  all  the 
summer  and  autumn. 

N2 


150 


NATURAL   HISTORY 


2.  Songthrush .  < 


Raii  Nomina. 

Turdus  simpliciter  ) 
dictus 


3.  Wren  .    .    , 

4.  Redbreast    . 

5.  Hedge-spar- 
row    .    .    . 

6.  Yellow-ham 
mer     .    . 

7.  Skylark  . 

8.  Swallow  _ 

9.  Blackcap 

10.  Titlark    . 


Passer  troglodytes  < 
Rebecula 


>  Curruca      .     . 

"  >  Emberiza  flava 

Alauda  vulgaris 
Hirundo  domestica 
Atricapilla  .     . 

Alauda  pratorum 


11.  Blackbird     .     Merula  vulgaris 


12.  Whitethroat 

13.  Goldfinch     . 

14.  Greenfinch  . 

15.  Less  reed- 
sparrow  .     . 

16.  Common  lin- 
net     .    .    . 


Ficedida  affinis 

Carduelis     .     . 

Chi  oris  .     .     . 
Passer 


arundina 


ceus  minor 


>  Linaria  vulgaris 


In   February,  and  on  to 
Aug. ;   reassume  their 
(     song  in  autumn. 
All  the   year,  hard  frost 

excepted. 
Ditto. 
Early  in  February  to  July 

the  10th. 
Early  in  February,  and  on 
through  July  to  August 
the  21st. 
In    February  and  on  to 

October. 
From  April  to  September. 
Beginning  of  April  to  July 

the  13th. 
From  middle  of  April  to 
July  16. 
( Sometimes   in  February 
and  March,  and  so  on 
to  July  the  23d  :  reas- 
sumesin  autumn. 
In  April  and  on  to  July  23. 
(  April  and  through  to  Sep- 
(      tember  16. 
On  to  July  and  August  2. 
(May  on  to  beginning  of 
\      July. 

I  Whistles  on  till  Aug. :  re- 
assumes  its  note  when 
Ithey  begin  to  congre- 
gate in  October,  and 
again  early  before  the 
flocks  separate. 


i 

I 


Birds  that  cease  to  be  in  full  song,  and  are  usu- 
ally  silent  at  or  before  Midsummer : 


17.  Middle  wil- 
low-wren 

18.  Redstart  . 


{  Regulus  non  cris-  S 
\      tatus  ...     .  ( 

Ruticilla      .     .     . 


19.  Chaffinch     .     Fringilla     .    .     .  < 

20.  Nightingale      Luscinia     .    .    .< 


Middle  of  June;  begins  in 

April. 
Do. :  beginning  in  May.    * 
Beginning  of  June;  sings 

first  in  February. 
Middle   of   June ;    sings 

first  in  April. 


OF    SELBORNE. 


151 


Birds  that  sing  for  a  short  time,  and  very  early 
in  the  spring : 


Raii  Nomina, 


21.  Missel-bird  .     Turdus  viscivorus< 


22 


Great  tit 

mouse 

eye 


tit-       ) 
or  ox-  > 


Fringillago , 


fJan.  2d,  1770;  in  Feb. 
Is  called  in  Hampshire 
and  Sussex  the  storm- 
cock,  because  its  song 
is  supposed  to  forebode 
windy,  wet  weather ;  is 
the  largest  singing-bird 
we  have. 
In  Feb.,  March,  April ;  re- 
assumes  for  a  short  time 
in  September. 


Birds  that  have  somewhat  of  a  note  or  song,  and 
yet  are  hardly  to  be  called  singing-birds  : 


23.  Golden- 
crowned 
wren  .    . 

24.  Marsh  tit- 
mouse 

25.  Small  wil- 
low-wren 


f 


Regulus  cristatus 


>  Parus  palustris     .  < 

(  Regulus  non  cris- 
\      tatus    .... 


26.  Largest  do.       Ditto 


27.  Grasshopper 
lark     .    . 

28.  Martin     . 

29.  Bullfinch 

30.  Bunting  . 


Alauda  minima 
voce  locustcs 

Hirundo  agrestis 
Pyrrhula. 

Emberiza  alba 


Its  note  as  minute  as  its 
person;  frequents  the 
tops  of  high  oaks  and 
firs ;  the  smallest  Brit- 
ish bird. 

Haunts  great  woods  ;  two 
harsh,  sharp  notes. 

Sings  in  March  and  on  to 
September. 

Cantat  voce  stridula  locus' 

tee;    from  the    end    of 

April  to  August. 

C  Chirps  all  night,  from  the 

<     middle  of  April  to  the 

(     end  of  July. 

From  May  to  September. 


From  the  end  of  January 
to  July. 

All  singing-birds,  and  those  that  have  any  pre- 
tensions to  song,  not  only  in  Britain,  but  perhaps 
the  world  through,  come  under  the  Linnaean  ordo 
of  passeres. 

The  above-mentioned  birds,  as  they  stand  numer- 
ically, belong  to  the  following  Linnaean  genera : 


152 


NATURAL    HISTORY 


1, 7,  10,  27     .     .     .     .  Alauda. 
2,  11,21 Turdus. 


3,  4,  5,  9,  12,  15,  17,  ) 

18,  20,  23,  25,  26,  J 

6,  30 


Motacilla. 
Emberiza. 


8,  28     .     .  Hirundo. 

13,  16,  19,  Fringilla. 

22,  24  .     .  Parus. 

14,  29  .     .  Loxia. 


Birds  that  sing  as  they  fly  are  but  few  : 

Raii  Nomina. 

,,     ,       ,      •       5  Rising,    suspended,  and 
Alauda  vulgaris    .  <J      fallfng        v 

!ln  its  descent ;  also  sit- 
ting on  trees  and  walk- 
ing on  the  ground. 
(  Suspended  ;  in  hot  sum- 
Alauda  arborea     .  <      mer    nights    all    night 
f     long. 

,,     ,  (  Sometimes  from  bush  to 

Merula  .     .     .     .}      bush 

SUses,  when  singing  on  the 
wing,  odd  jerks  and  ges- 
ticulations. 
Hirundo  domestica    In  soft  sunny  weather. 

„  ,  ,  _     (  Sometimes  from  bush  to 

Passer  troglodytes  <      bush_ 

Birds  that  build  most  early  in  these  parts : 


Skylark    . 
Titlark     .    . 

Woodlark 
Blackbird 

Whitethroat 

Swallow  . 
Wren   .    . 


Raven  .    . 

Song-thrush 
Blackbird 

Rook    .    . 

Woodlark 

Ring-dove 


•{ 


Corvus    .     .     . 

Turdus .     .     . 
Merula   .     .     . 

Comix  frugilega 

Alauda  arborea 
Palumbus    torqua 
tus       .     .     . 


(  Hatches  in  February  and 
\      March. 

In  March. 

In  March. 
(  Builds  the  beginning  of 
\      March. 

Hatches  in  April, 
j  Lays  the    beginning   of 
\      April. 


All  birds  that  continue  in  full  song  till  after  Mid- 
summer appear  to  me  to  have  more  than  one  brood. 

Most  kind  of  birds  seem  to  me  to  be  wild  and 
shy  somewhat  in  proportion  to  their  bulk ;  I  mean 
in  this  island,  where  they  are  much  pursued  and 
annoyed  ;  but  in  Ascension  Island,  and  many  oth- 
er desolate  places,  mariners  have  found  fowls  so 
unacquainted  with  a  human  figure  that  they  would 


OF    SELBORNE.  153 

stand  still  to  be  taken,  as  is  the  case  with  boobies, 
&c.  As  an  example  of  what  is  advanced,  I  re- 
mark, that  the  golden-crested  wren  (the  smallest 
British  bird)  will  stand  unconcerned  till  you  come 
within  three  or  four  yards  of  it;  while  the  bustard 
(otis),  the  largest  British  land-fowl,  does  not  care 
to  admit  a  person  within  so  many  furlongs. 


LETTER     III. 

Selborne,  Jan.  15,  1770. 

Dear  Sir, — It  was  no  small  matter  of  satisfac- 
tion to  me  to  find  that  you  were  not  displeased 
with  my  little  methodus  of  birds.  If  there  was  any 
merit  in  the  sketch,  it  must  be  owing  to  its  punc- 
tuality. For  many  months  I  carried  a  list  in  my 
pocket  of  the  birds  that  were  to  be  remarked,  and, 
as  I  rode  or  walked  about  my  business,  I  noted 
each  day  the  continuance  or  omission  of  each  bird's 
song,  so  that  I  am  as  sure  of  the  certainty  of  my 
facts  as  a  man  can  be  of  any  transaction  whatso- 
ever. 

I  shall  now  proceed  to  answer  the  several  que- 
ries which  you  put  in  your  two  obliging  letters  in 
the  best  manner  that  I  am  able.  Perhaps  East- 
wick  and  its  environs,  where  you  heard  so  very 
few  birds,  is  not  a  woodland  country,  and,  there- 
fore, not  stocked  with  such  songsters.  If  you  will 
cast  your  eye  on  my  last  letter,  you  will  find  that 
many  species  continued  to  warble  after  the  begin- 
ning of  July. 

The  titlark  and  yellow-hammer  hatch  late,  the 


154  NATURAL    HISTORY 

latter  very  late ;  and  therefore  it  is  no  wonder  that 
they  protract  their  song :  for  I  lay  it  down  as  a 
maxim  in  ornithology,  that,  as  long  as  there  is  any 
incubation  going  on,  there  is  music.  As  to  the 
redbreast  and  wren,  it  is  well  known  to  the  most 
incurious  observer  that  they  whistle  the  year  round, 
hard  frost  excepted,  especially  the  latter. 

It  was  not  in  my  power  to  procure  you  a  black- 
cap, or  a  less  reed-sparrow,  or  sedgebird  alive.  As 
the  first  is  undoubtedly,  and  the  last  as  far  as  I  can 
yet  see,  a  summer  bird  of  passage,  they  would  re- 
quire more  nice  and  curious  management  in  a  cage 
than  I  should  be  able  to  give  them  :  they  are  both 
distinguished  songsters.  The  note  of  the  former 
has  such  a  wild  sweetness  that  it  always  brings  to 
my  mind  those  lines  in  a  song  in  "  As  You  Like 
It:" 

"  And  tune  his  merry  note 
Unto  the  wild  bird's  throat." — Shakspeare. 

The  latter  has  a  surprising  variety  of  notes,  resem- 
bling the  song  of  several  other  birds ;  but  then  it 
has  also  a  hurrying  manner,  not  at  all  to  its  advan- 
tage.    It  is,  notwithstanding,  a  delicate  polyglot. 

It  is  new  to  me  that  titlarks  in  cages  sing  in  the 
night ;  perhaps  only  caged  birds  do  so.  I  once 
knew  a  tame  redbreast  in  a  cage  that  always  sang 
as  long  as  candles  were  in  the  room ;  but  in  their 
wild  state  no  one  supposes  they  sing  in  the  night. 

I  should  be  almost  ready  to  doubt  the  fact  that 
there  are  to  be  seen  much  fewer  birds  in  July  than 
in  any  former  month,  notwithstanding  so  many 
young  are  hatched  daily.  Sure  I  am  that  it  is  far 
otherwise  with  respect  to  the  swallow  tribe,  which 
increases  prodigiously  as  the  summer  advances; 


OF    SELBORNE.  155 

and  I  saw,  at  the  time  mentioned,  many  hundreds 
of  young  wagtails  on  the  banks  of  the  Cherwell, 
which  almost  covered  the  meadows.  If  the  matter 
appears  as  you  say  in  the  other  species,  may  it  not 
be  owing  to  the  dams  being  engaged  in  incubation, 
while  the  young  are  concealed  by  the  leaves  ? 

Many  times  have  I  had  the  curiosity  to  open  the 
stomach  of  woodcocks  and  snipes ;  but  nothing 
ever  occurred  that  helped  to  explain  to  me  what 
their  subsistence  might  be ;  all  that  I  could  ever 
find  was  a  soft  mucus,  among  which  lay  many  pel- 
lucid small  gravels. 


LETTER   IV. 


Selborne,  Feb.  19,  1770. 
Dear  Sir, — Your  observation  that  "  the  Cuckoo 
does  not  deposite  its  egg  indiscriminately  in  the 


nest  of  the  first  bird  that  comes  in  its  way,  but 
probably  looks  out  a  nurse  in  some  degree  con- 


156  NATURAL   HISTORY 

generous,  with  whom  to  intrust  its  young,"  is  per- 
fectly new  to  me,  and  struck  me  so  forcibly  that  I 
naturally  fell  into  a  train  of  thought  that  led  me  to 
consider  whether  the  fact  was  so,  and  what  reason 
there  was  for  it.  When  I  came  to  recollect  and 
inquire,  I  could  not  find  that  any  cuckoo  had  ever 
been  seen  in  these  parts  except  in  the  nest  of  the 
wagtail,  the  hedge-sparrow,  the  titlark,  the  white- 
throat,  and  the  redbreast,  all  soft-billed,  insectivo- 
rous birds.  The  excellent  Mr.  Willoughby  men- 
tions the  nest  of  the  palumbus  (ring-dove)  and  of 
the  fringilla  (chaffinch),  birds  that  subsist  on 
acorns  and  grains,  and  such  hard  food ;  but  then 
he  does  not  mention  them  as  of  his  own  knowl- 
edge, but  says  afterward  that  he  saw  himself  a 
wagtail  feeding  a  cuckoo.  It  appears  hardly  pos- 
sible that  a  soft-billed  bird  should  subsist  on  the 
same  food  with  the  hard-billed  ;  for  the  former  have 
thin  membranaceous  stomachs  suited  to  their  soft 
food,  while  the  latter,  the  granivorous  tribe,  have 
strong  muscular  gizzards,  which,  like  mills,  grind, 
by  the  help  of  small  gravels  and  pebbles,  what  is 
swallowed.  This  proceeding  of  the  cuckoo,  of 
dropping  its  eggs  as  it  were  by  chance,  is  such  a 
monstrous  outrage  on  maternal  affection,  one  of 
the  first  great  dictates  of  nature,  and  such  a  vio- 
lence on  instinct,  that,  had  it  only  been  related  of 
a  bird  in  the  Brazils  or  Peru,  it  would  never  have 
merited  our  belief.  But  yet,  should  it  farther  ap- 
pear that  this  simple  bird,  when  divested  of  that 
natural  aropyi]  that  seems  to  raise  the  kind  in  gen- 
eral above  themselves,  and  inspire  them  with  ex- 
traordinary degrees  of  cunning  and  address,  may 
be  still  endued  with  a  more  enlarged  faculty  of  dis- 


OF    SELBORNE.  157 

cerning  what  species  are  suitable  and  congenerous 
nursing-mothers  for  its  disregarded  eggs  and  young, 
and  may  deposite  them  only  under  their  care,  this 
would  be  adding  wonder  to  wonder,  and  instancing, 
in  a  fresh  manner,  that  the  methods  of  Providence 
are  not  subjected  to  any  mode  or  rule,  but  astonish 
us  in  new  lights,  and  in  various  and  changeable 
appearances. 

What  was  said  by  a  very  ancient  and  sublime 
writer  concerning  the  defect  of  natural  affection  in 
the  ostrich,  may  be  well  applied  to  the  bird  we  are 
talking  of: 

"She  is  hardened  against  her  young  ones,  as 
though  they  were  not  hers  : 

"  Because  God  hath  deprived  her  of  wisdom  ; 
neither  hath  he  imparted  to  her  understanding."* 

Query — Does  each  hen  cuckoo  lay  but  one  egg 
in  a  season,  or  does  she  drop  several  in  different 
nests,  according  as  opportunity  offers  ? 


LETTER    V. 

Selbome,  April  12,  1770. 
Dear  Sir, — I  heard  many  birds  of  several  spe- 
cies sing  last  year  after  Midsummer  ;  enough  to 
prove  that  the  summer  solstice  is  not  the  period 
that  puts  a  stop  to  the  music  of  the  woods.  The 
yellow-hammer,  no  doubt,  persists  with  more  stead- 
iness than  any  other  ;  but  the  woodlark,  the  wren, 
the  redbreast,  the  swallow,  the  whitethroat,  the 
goldfinch,  the  common  linnet,  are  all  undoubted  in- 
stances of  the  truth  of  what  I  advanced. 

*  Job,  xxxix.,  16,  17. 

o 


158  NATURAL   HISTORY 

If  this  severe  season  does  not  interrupt  the  reg- 
ularity of  the  summer  migrations,  the  blackcap 
will  be  here  in  two  or  three  days.  I  wish  it  was 
in  my  power  to  procure  you  one  of  those  songsters  ; 
but  I  am  no  bird-catcher,  and  so  little  used  to  birds 
in  a  cage,  that  I  fear,  if  I  had  one,  it  would  soon 
die  for  want  of  skill  in  feeding. 

Was  your  red  sparrow,  which  you  kept  in  a 
cage,  the  thick-billed  reed-sparrow  of  the  Zoology, 
p.  320,  or  was  it  the  less  reed-sparrow  of  Ray,  the 
sedgebird  of  Mr.  Pennant's  last  publication,  p.  16  ? 

As  to  the  matter  of  long-billed  birds  growing 
fatter  in  moderate  frosts,  I  have  no  doubt  within 
myself  what  should  be  the  reason.  The  thriving 
at  those  times  appears  to  me  to  arise  altogether 
from  the  gentle  check  which  the  cold  throws  upon 
insensible  perspiration.  The  case  is  just  the  same 
with  blackbirds,  &c. ;  and  farmers  and  warreners 
observe,  the  first,  that  their  hogs  fat  more  kindly 
at  such  times  ;  and  the  latter,  that  their  rabbits  are 
never  in  such  good  case  as  in  a  gentle  frost.  But, 
when  frosts  are  severe  and  of  long  continuance, 
the  case  is  soon  altered,  for  then  a  want  of  food 
soon  overbalances  the  repletion  occasioned  by  a 
checked  perspiration.  I  have  observed,  moreover, 
that  some  human  constitutions  are  more  inclined 
to  plumpness  in  winter  than  in  summer. 

When  birds  come  to  suffer  by  severe  frost,  I  find 
that  the  first  that  come  to  die  are  the  redwing 
fieldfares,  and  then  the  song- thrushes. 

You  wonder,  with  good  reason,  that  the  hedge- 
sparrows,  &c,  can  be  induced  at  all  to  sit  on  the 
egg  of  the  cuckoo  without  being  scandalized  at  the 
vast  disproportioned  size  of  the  supposititious  egg  ; 


OF    SELBORNE.  159 

but  the  brute  creation,  I  suppose,  have  very  little 
idea  of  size,  colour,  or  number.  For  the  common 
hen,  I  know,  when  the  fury  of  incubation  is  on  her, 
will  sit  on  a  single  shapeless  stone  instead  of  a  nest 
full  of  eggs  that  have  been  withdrawn  ;  and,  more- 
over, a  hen  turkey,  in  the  same  circumstances, 
would  sit  on,  in  the  empty  nest,  till  she  perished 
with  hunger. 

I  think  the  matter  might  easily  be  determined 
whether  a  cuckoo  lays  one  or  two  eggs,  or  more, 
in  a  season. 

Your  supposition  that  there  may  be  some  natural 
obstruction  in  singing-birds  while  they  are  mute, 
and  that,  when  this  is  removed,  the  song  recom- 
mences, is  new  and  bold.  I  wish  you  could  dis- 
cover some  good  grounds  for  this  suspicion. 

I  was  glad  you  were  pleased  with  my  specimen 
of  the  caprimulgus,  or  fern-owl ;  you  were,  I  find, 
acquainted  with  the  bird  before. 

When  we  meet,  I  shall  be  glad  to  have  some  con- 
versation with  you  concerning  the  proposal  you 
make  of  my  drawing  up  an  account  of  the  animals 
of  this  neighbourhood.  Your  partiality  towards 
my  small  inabilites  persuades  you,  I  fear,  that  I  am 
able  to  do  more  than  is  in  my  power ;  for  it  is  no 
small  undertaking  for  a  man  unsupported  and  alone 
to  begin  a  natural  history  from  his  own  autopsia  ! 
Though  there  is  endless  room  for  observation  in  the 
field  of  nature,  which  is  boundless,  yet  investigation 
(where  a  man  endeavours  to  be  sure  of  his  facts) 
can  make  but  slow  progress  ;  and  all  that  one  could 
collect  in  many  years  would  go  into  a  very  narrow 
compass. 

Some  extracts  from  your  ingenious  "  Investiga- 


160  NATURAL    HISTORY 

tions  of  the  difference  between  the  present  temper- 
ature of  the  air  in  Italy,"  &c,  have  fallen  in  my 
way,  and  gave  me  great  satisfaction.  They  have 
removed  the  objection  that  always  arose  in  my 
mind  whenever  I  came  to  the  passages  which  you 
quote.  Surely  the  judicious  Virgil,  when  writing 
a  didactic  poem  for  the  region  of  Italy,  could  never 
think  of  describing  freezing  rivers,  unless  such  se- 
verity of  weather  pretty  frequently  occurred  ! 
P.S. — Swallows  appear  amid  snows  and  frost. 


LETTER     VI. 

Selborne,  May  21,  1770. 

Dear  Sir, — The  severity  and  turbulence  of  last 
month  [April]  so  interrupted  the  regular  process  of 
summer  migration,  that  some  of  the  birds  do  but 
just  begin  to  show  themselves,  and  others  are  ap- 
parently  thinner  than  usual ;  as  the  whitethroat,  the 
blackcap,  the  redstart,  the  fly-catcher.  I  well  re- 
member, that  after  the  very  severe  spring,  in  the 
year  1739-40,  summer  birds  of  passage  were  very 
scarce.  They  come  probably  hither  with  the  south- 
east  wind,  or  when  it  blows  between  those  points ; 
but  in  that  unfavourable  year  the  winds  blew  the 
whole  spring  and  summer  through  from  the  opposite 
quarters.  And  yet,  amid  all  these  disadvantages, 
two  swallows,  as  I  mentioned  in  my  last,  appeared 
this  year  as  early  as  the  11th  of  April,  amid  frost 
and  snow,  but  they  withdrew  again  for  a  time. 

I  am  not  pleased  to  find  that  some  people  seem 
so  little  satisfied  with  Scopoli's  new  publication.* 

*  This  work  he  calls  his  "  Annus  Primus  Historico-Naturalis." 


OF    SELBORNE.  161 

There  is  room  to  expect  great  things  from  the  hands 
of  that  man,  who  is  a  good  naturalist ;  and  one 
would  think  that  a  history  of  the  birds  of  so  distant 
and  southern  a  region  as  Carniola  would  be  new 
and  interesting.  I  could  wish  to  see  that  work, 
and  hope  to  get  it  sent  down.  Dr.  Scopoli  is  phy- 
sician to  the  wretches  that  work  in  the  quicksilver 
mines  of  that  district. 

When  you  talked  of  keeping  a  reed. sparrow  and 
giving  it  seeds,  I  could  not  help  wondering,  because 
the  reed-sparrow  which  I  mentioned  to  you  (passer 
arundinaceus  minor,  Raii)  is  a  soft-billed  bird,  and 
most  probably  migrates  hence  before  winter,  where- 
as the  bird  you  kept  (passer  torqualus,  Raii)  abides 
all  the  year,  and  is  a  thick-billed  bird.  I  question 
whether  the  latter  be  much  of  a  songster,  but  in  this 
matter  I  want  to  be  better  informed.  The  former 
has  a  variety  of  hurrying  notes,  and  sings  all  night. 
Some  part  of  the  song  of  the  former,  I  suspect,  is 
attributed  to  the  latter.  We  have  plenty  of  the 
soft-billed  sort,  which  Mr.  Pennant  had  entirely 
left  out  of  his  British  Zoology  till  I  reminded  him 
of  his  omission.  See  British  Zoology  last  publish- 
ed,  p.  16.* 

I  have  somewhat  to  advance  on  the  different 
manners  in  which  different  birds  fly  and  walk  ;  but, 
as  this  is  a  subject  that  I  have  not  enough  consider- 
ed, and  is  of  such  a  nature  as  not  to  be  contained 
in  a  small  space,  I  shall  say  nothing  farther  about 
it  at  present.f 

*  See  Letter  XXV.,  Part  I. 
|  See  Letter  XXXVIII.,  Part  II. 
02 


162  NATURAL   HISTORY 


LETTER     VII. 


Ringmer,  near  Lewes,  Oct.  8, 1770. 

Dear  Sir, — I  am  glad  to  hear  that  Kuekalm  is  to 
furnish  you  with  the  birds  of  Jamaica.  A  sight  of 
the  hirundines  of  that  hot  and  distant  island  would 
be  a  great  entertainment  to  me. 

The  Anni  of  Scopoli  are  now  in  my  possession, 
and  I  have  read  the  Annus  Primus  with  satisfac- 
tion ;  for,  though  some  parts  of  this  work  are  ex- 
ceptionable, and  he  may  advance  some  mistaken 
observations,  yet  the  ornithology  of  so  distant  a 
country  as  Carniola  is  very  curious.  Men  that 
undertake  only  one  district  are  much  more  likely  to 
advance  natural  knowledge  than  those  that  grasp  at 
more  than  they  can  possibly  be  acquainted  with. 
Every  kingdom,  every  province,  should  have  its 
own  monographer. 

The  reason,  perhaps,  why  he  mentions  nothing 
of  Ray's  Ornithology,  may  be  the  extreme  poverty 
and  distance  of  his  country,  into  which  the  works 
of  our  great  naturalists  may  have  never  yet  found 
their  way.  You  have  doubts,  I  know,  whether  this 
Ornithology  is  genuine,  and  really  the  work  of  Sco- 
poli :  as  to  myself,  I  think  I  discover  strong  tokens 
of  authenticity  ;  the  style  corresponds  with  that  of 
his  Entomology  ;  and  his  characters  of  his  Ordines 
and  Genera  are  many  of  them  new,  expressive,  and 
masterly.  He  has  ventured  to  alter  some  of  the 
Linnaean  genera,  with  sufficient  show  of  reason. 

It  might,  perhaps,  be  mere  accident  that  you  saw 
so  many  swifts  and  no  swallows  at  Staines ;  be- 
cause, in  my  long  observation  of  those  birds,  I  nev- 


OF   SELBORNE.  163 

er  could  discover  the  least  degree  of  rivalry  or  hos- 
tility between  the  species. 

Ray  remarks  that  birds  of  the  gallina  order,  as 
cocks  and  hens,  partridges  and  pheasants,  &c,  are 
pulveratrices,  such  as  dust  themselves,  using  that 
method  of  cleaning  their  feathers  and  ridding  them- 
selves of  their  vermin.  As  far  as  I  can  observe, 
many  birds  that  dust  themselves  never  wash  ;  and  I 
once  thought  that  those  birds  that  wash  themselves 
would  never  dust ;  but  here  I  find  myself  mistaken  ; 
for  common  house-sparrows  are  great  pulveratri- 
ces, being  frequently  seen  grovelling  and  wallow- 
ing in  dusty  roads,  and  yet  they  are  great  washers. 
Does  not  the  skylark  dust? 

Query — Might  not  Mohammed  and  his  followers 
take  one  method  of  purification  from  these  pulve- 
ratrices ?  because  I  find,  from  travellers  of  credit, 
that  if  a  strict  Mussulman  is  journeying  in  a  sandy 
desert,  where  no  water  is  to  be  found,  at  stated 
hours  he  strips  off  his  clothes,  and  most  scrupu- 
lously rubs  his  body  over  with  sand  or  dust. 

A  countryman  told  me  he  had  found  a  young 
fern-owl  in  the  nest  of  a  small  bird  on  the  ground, 
and  that  it  was  fed  by  the  little  bird.  I  went  to  see 
this  extraordinary  phenomenon,  and  found  that  it 
was  a  young  cuckoo  hatched  in  the  nest  of  a  tit- 
lark ;  it  was  become  vastly  too  big  for  its  nest,  ap- 
pearing 

"  in  tenui  re 
Majores  pennas  nido  extendisse," 

and  was  very  fierce  and  pugnacious,  pursuing  my 
finger,  as  I  teased  it,  for  many  feet  from  its  nest, 
and  sparring  and  buffeting  with  its  wings  like  a 
game-cock,  the  dupe  of  a  dam  appearing  at  a  dis- 


164  NATURAL    HISTORY 

tance,  hovering  about  with  meat  in  its  mouth,  and 
expressing  the  greatest  solicitude. 

In  July  I  saw  several  cuckoos  skimming  over  a 
large  pond,  and  found,  after  some  observation,  that 
they  were  feeding  on  the  libellulcR,  or  dragon-flies, 
some  of  which  they  caught  as  they  settled  on  the 
weeds,  and  some  as  they  were  on  the  wing.  Not- 
withstanding what  Linnaeus  says,  I  cannot  be  in- 
duced to  believe  that  they  are  birds  of  prey. 

This  district  affords  some  birds  that  are  hardly 
ever  heard  of  at  Selborne.  In  the  first  place,  con- 
siderable flocks  of  crossbeaks  (loxice,  curmrostra) 
have  appeared  this  summer  in  the  pine  groves  be- 
longing to  the  house  [Ringmer,  near  Lewes]  ;  the 
water-ousel  is  said  to  haunt  the  mouth  of  the  Lewes 
River,  near  Newhaven ;  and  the  Cornish  chough 
builds,  I  know,  all  along  the  chalky  cliffs  of  the 
Sussex  shore. 

I  was  greatly  pleased  to  see  little  parties  of  ring- 
ousels  (my  newly-discovered  migrators)  scattered 
at  intervals  all  along  the  Sussex  Downs,  from  Chi- 
chester to  Lewes.  Let  them  come  from  whence 
they  will,  it  looks  very  suspicious  that  they  are  can- 
toned along  the  coast  in  order  to  pass  the  Channel 
when  severe  weather  advances.  They  visit  us 
again  in  April,  as  it  should  seem,  in  their  return, 
and  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  dead  of  winter.  It 
is  remarkable  that  they  are  very  tame,  and  seem 
to  have  no  manner  of  apprehensions  of  danger  from 
a  person  with  a  gun.  There  are  bustards  on  the 
wide  downs  near  Brighthelmstone ;  no  doubt  they 
are  acquainted  with  the  Sussex  Downs.  The  pros- 
pects and  rides  round  Lewes  are  most  lovely. 

As  I  rode  along  near  the  coast,  I  kept  a  very 


OF    SELBORNE.  165 

sharp  look-out  in  the  lanes  and  woods,  hoping  I 
might,  at  this  time  of  the  year,  have  discovered 
some  of  the  summer  short-winged  birds  of  passage 
crowding  towards  the  coast  in  order  for  their  de- 
parture ;  but  it  was  very  extraordinary  that  I  nev- 
er saw  a  redstart,  whitethroat,  blackcap,  uncrested 
wren,  fly-catcher,  &c.  ;  and  I  remember  to  have 
made  the  same  remark  in  former  years,  as  I  usu- 
ally come  to  this  place  annually  about  this  time. 
The  birds  most  common  along  the  coast  at  present 
are  the  stone  chatterers,  whinchats,  buntings,  lin- 
nets, some  few  wheatears,  titlarks,  &c.  Swallows 
and  house-martins  abound  yet  [October  8th],  in- 
duced to  prolong  their  stay  by  this  soft,  still,  dry 
season. 

A  land  tortoise,  which  has  been  kept  for  thirty 
years  in  a  little  walled  court  belonging  to  the  house 
where  I  am  now  visiting,  retires  under  ground 
about  the  middle  of  November,  and  comes  forth 
again  about  the  middle  of  April.  When  it  first  ap- 
pears in  the  spring  it  discovers  very  little  inclina- 
tion towards  food,  but  in  the  height  of  summer 
grows  voracious,  and  then,  as  the  summer  declines, 
its  appetite  declines,  so  that  for  the  last  six  weeks 
in  autumn  it  hardly  eats  at  all.  Milky  plants,  such 
as  lettuces,  dandelions,  sow-thistles,  are  its  favourite 
dish.  In  a  neighbouring  village  one  was  kept  till, 
by  tradition,  it  was  supposed  to  be  a  hundred  years 
old :  an  instance  of  vast  longevity  in  such  a  poor 
reptile ! 


166  NATURAL   HISTORY 


LETTER     VIII. 


Selbome,  Dec.  20,  1770. 

Dear  Sir, — The  birds  that  I  took  for  aberda- 
vines  were  reed-sparrows  (passeres  torquati). 

There  are  doubtless  many  home  internal  migra- 
tions within  this  kingdom  that  want  to  be  belter 
understood  ;  witness  those  vast  flocks  of  hen  chaf- 
finches that  appear  with  us  in  the  winter,  without 
hardly  any  cocks  among  them.  Now,  was  there 
a  due  proportion  of  each  sort,  it  would  seem  very 
improbable  that  any  one  district  should  produce 
such  numbers  of  these  little  birds,  and  much  more 
when  only  one  half  of  the  species  appears  ;  there- 
fore we  may  conclude  that  the  fringilla  ccelebes, 
for  some  good  purposes,  have  a  peculiar  migration 
of  their  own,  in  which  the  sexes  part.  For  this 
matter  of  the  chaffinches,  see  Fauna  Suecica,  p.  85, 
and  Systema  Naturce,  p.  318.  I  see  every  winter 
vast  flights  of  hen  chaffinches,  but  none  of  cocks. 

Your  method  of  accounting  for  the  periodical 
motions  of  the  British  singing- birds,  or  birds  of 
flight,  is  a  very  probable  one,  since  the  matter  of 
food  is  a  great  regulator  of  the  actions  and  proceed- 
ings of  the  brute  creation  :  there  is  but  one  that  can 
be  set  in  competition  with  it,  and  that  is  love.  But 
I  cannot  quite  acquiesce  with  you  in  one  circum- 
stance, when  you  advance  that  "  When  they  have 
thus  feasted  they  again  separate  into  small  parties 
of  five  or  six,  and  get  the  best  fare  they  can  within 
a  certain  district,  having  no  inducement  to  go  in 
quest  of  fresh-turned  earth."  Now  if  you  mean 
that  the  business  of  congregating  is  quite  at  an  end 


OF    SELBORNE.  167 

from  the  conclusion  of  wheat-sowing  to  the  season 
of  barley  and  oats,  it  is  not  the  case  with  us ;  for 
larks  and  chaffinches,  and  particularly  linnets,  flock 
and  congregate  as  much  in  the  very  dead  of  winter 
as  when  the  husbandman  is  busy  with  his  ploughs 
and  harrows. 

Sure  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  woodcocks 
and  fieldfares  leave  us  in  the  spring,  in  order  to 
cross  the  seas,  and  to  retire  to  some  districts  more 
suitable  to  the  purpose  of  hatching  their  young. 
That  the  former  pair  before  they  retire,  I  myself, 
when  I  was  a  sportsman,  have  often  experienced. 
It  cannot  indeed  be  denied  but  that  now  and  then 
we  hear  of  a  woodcock's  nest,  or  young  birds,  dis- 
covered in  some  part  or  other  of  this  island ;  but 
then  they  are  always  mentioned  as  rarities,  and 
somewhat  out  of  the  common  course  of  things  ;  but 
as  to  redwings  and  fieldfares,  no  sportsman  or 
naturalist  has  ever  yet,  that  I  could  hear,  pretended 
to  have  found  the  nest  or  young  of  those  species  in 
any  part  of  these  kingdoms.  And  I  the  more  ad- 
mire at  this  instance  as  extraordinary,  since,  to  all 
appearance,  the  same  food  in  summer  as  well  as  in 
winter  might  support  them  here  which  maintains 
their  congeners,  the  blackbirds  and  thrushes,  did 
they  choose  to  stay  the  summer  through.  From 
hence  it  appears  that  it  is  not  food  alone  which 
determines  some  species  of  birds  with  regard  to 
their  stay  or  departure.  Fieldfares  and  redwings 
disappear  sooner  or  later,  according  as  the  warm 
weather  comes  on  earlier  or  later  ;  for  I  well  re- 
member, after  that  dreadful  winter  1739-40,  that 
cold  northeast  winds  continued  to  blow  on  through 
April  and  May,  and  that  these  kinds  of  birds  (what 


168  NATURAL   HISTORY 

few  remained  of  them)  did  not  depart  as  usual, 
but  were  seen  lingering  about  till  the  beginning  of 
June. 

The  best  authority  that  we  can  have  for  the  nidi- 
fication  of  the  birds  above  mentioned  in  any  district, 
is  the  testimony  of  faunists  that  have  written  pro- 
fessedly the  natural  history  of  particular  countries. 
Now  as  to  the  fieldfare,  Linnaeus,  in  his  Fauna 
Suecica,  says  of  it,  that  "  maximis  in  arboribus  nidi. 
Jicat ;"  and  of  the  redwing  he  says  in  the  same 
place,  that  "  nidijicat  in  mediis  arbusculis,  sive  sepi- 
bus  :  ova  sex  cceruleo-viridia  maculis  nigris  variis." 
Hence  we  may  be  assured  that  fieldfares  and  red- 
wings are  bred  in  Sweden.  Scopoli  says,  in  his 
Annus  Primus,  of  the  woodcock,  that  "nupta  ad 
nos  venit  circa  cequinoctium  vernale"  meaning  in 
Tyrol,  of  which  he  is  a  native.  And  afterward  he 
adds,  "  nidijicat  in  paludibus  alpinis  :  ova  ponit  3-5." 
It  does  not  appear  from  Kramer  that  woodcocks 
build  at  all  in  Austria  ;  but  he  says,  "  Avis  hac  sep. 
tentrionalium provinciarum  cBstivo  tempore  incola  est ; 
ubi  plerumque  nidijicat.  Appropinquante  hyeme  aus- 
traliores  provincias  petit :  bine  circa  plenilunium 
potissimum  mensis  Octobris  plerumque  Austriam 
transmigrat.  Tunc  rursus  circa  plenilunium  po- 
tissimum mensis  Martii  per  Austriam  matrimonio 
juncta  ad  septentrionales  provincias  redit."  For  the 
whole  passage  (which  I  have  abridged),  see  Elen- 
chus,  &c,  p.  351.  This  seems  to  be  a  full  proof  of 
the  emigration  of  woodcocks,  though  little  is  proved 
concerning  the  place  of  their  building. 

P.S. — There  fell  in  the  county  of  Rutland,  in 
three  weeks  of  this  present  very  wet  weather,  seven 
inches  and  a  half  of  rain,  which  is  more  than  has 


OF    SELBORNE.  169 

fallen  in  any  three  weeks  for  these  thirty  years  past 
in  that  part  of  the  world.  A  mean  quantity  in  that 
county,  for  one  year,  is  twenty  inches  and  a  half. 


LETTER    II. 

You  are,  I  know,  no  great  friend  to  migration ; 
and  the  well-attested  accounts  from  various  parts 
of  the  kingdom  seem  to  justify  you  in  your  suspi- 
cions, that  at  least  many  of  the  swallow  kind  do  not 
leave  us  in  the  winter,  but  lay  themselves  up  like 
insects  and  bats,  in  a  torpid  state,  and  slumber  away 
the  more  uncomfortable  months,  till  the  return  of 
the  sun  and  fine  weather  awakens  them. 

But  then  we  must  not,  I  think,  deny  migration 
in  general,  because  migration  certainly  does  subsist 
in  some  places,  as  my  brother  in  Andalusia  has  ful- 
ly informed  me.  Of  the  motions  of  these  birds  he 
has  ocular  demonstration,  for  many  weeks  together, 
both  spring  and  fall,  during  which  periods  myriads 
of  the  swallow  kind  traverse  the  Straits  from  north 
to  south  and  from  south  to  north,  according  to  the 
season.  And  these  vast  migrations  consist  not  only 
of  hirundines,  but  of  bee-birds,  hoopoes,  oro  pendo- 
los,  or  golden  thrushes,  &c,  &c,  and  also  of  many 
of  our  soft-billed  summer  birds  of  passage ;  and, 
moreover,  of  birds  which  never  leave  us,  such  as 
all  the  various  sorts  of  hawks  and  kites.  Old  Be- 
lon,  two  hundred  years  ago,  gives  a  curious  account 
of  the  incredible  armies  of  hawks  and  kites  which 
he  saw  in  the  springtime  traversing  the  Thracian 
Bosphorus   from   Asia  to   Europe.     Besides  the 

P 


170  NATURAL  HISTORY 

above-mentioned,  he  remarks  that  the  procession 
is  swelled  by  whole  troops  of  eagles  and  vultures. 

Now  it  is  no  wonder  that  birds  residing  in  Africa 
should  retreat  before  the  sun  as  it  advances,  and  re- 
tire to  milder  regions,  and  especially  birds  of  prey, 
whose  blood  being  heated  with  hot  animal  food,  are 
more  impatient  of  a  sultry  climate  ;  but  then  I  can- 
not help  wondering  why  kites  and  hawks,  and  such 
hardy  birds  as  are  known  to  defy  all  the  severity  of 
England,  and  even  of  Sweden  and  all  north  Europe, 
should  want  to  migrate  from  the  south  of  Europe, 
and  be  dissatisfied  with  the  winters  of  Andalusia. 

It  does  not  appear  to  me  that  much  stress  may 
be  laid  on  the  difficulty  and  hazard  that  birds  must 
run  in  their  migrations,  by  reason  of  vast  oceans, 
cross  winds,  &c.  ;  because,  if  we  reflect,  a  bird 
may  travel  from  England  to  the  equator  without 
launching  out  and  exposing  itself  to  boundless  seas, 
and  that  by  crossing  the  water  at  Dover,  and  again 
at  Gibraltar.  And  I  with  the  more  confidence  ad- 
vance this  obvious  remark,  because  my  brother  has 
always  found  that  some  of  his  birds,  and  particu- 
larly the  swallow  kind,  are  very  sparing  of  their 
pains  in  crossing  the  Mediterranean  ;  for,  when  ar- 
rived at  Gibraltar,  they  do  not, 

"  Ranged  in  figure,  wedge  their  way, 
*       *       *       *       and  set  forth 
Their  airy  caravan  high  over  seas 
Flying,  and  over  lands  with  mutual  wing 
Easing  their  flight ;"  Milton. 

but  scout  and  hurry  along  in  little  detached  parties 
of  six  or  seven  in  a  company  ;  and  sweeping  low, 
just  over  the  surface  of  the  land  and  water,  direct 
their  course  to  the  opposite  continent  at  the  nar- 
rowest passage  they  can  find.     They  usually  slope 


\ 


OF    SELBORNE.  171 

across  the  bay  to  the  southwest,  and  so  pass  over 
opposite  to  Tangier,  which,  it  seems,  is  the  narrow- 
est space. 

In  former  letters  we  have  considered  whether  it 
was  probable  that  Woodcocks  in  moonshiny  nights 


cross  the  German  Ocean  from  Scandinavia.  As 
a  proof  that  birds  of  less  speed  may  pass  that  sea, 
considerable  as  it  is,  I  shall  relate  the  following  in- 
cident, which,  though  mentioned  to  have  happened 
so  many  years  ago,  was  strictly  matter  of  fact : 
As  some  people  were  shooting  in  the  parish  of 
Trotten,  in  the  county  of  Sussex,  they  killed  a  duck 
in  that  dreadful  winter  1708-9,  with  a  silver  collar 
about  its  neck,*  on  which  were  engraven  the  arms 
of  the  King  of  Denmark.  This  anecdote  the  rec- 
tor of  Trotten  at  that  time  has  often  told  to  a  near 
relation  of  mine ;  and,  to  the  best  of  my  remem- 
brance, the  collar  was  in  the  possession  of  the  rec- 
tor. 

At  present  I  do  not  know  anybody  near  the  sea- 

*  I  have  read  a  like  anecdote  of  a  swan. 


172  NATURAL    HISTORY 

side  that  will  take  the  trouble  to  remark  at  what 
time  of  the  moon  woodcocks  first  come  :  if  I  lived 
near  the  sea  myself,  I  would  soon  tell  you  more  of 
the  matter.  One  thing  I  used  to  observe  when  I 
was  a  sportsman,  that  there  were  times  in  which 
woodcocks  were  so  sluggish  and  sleepy  that  they 
would  drop  again  when  flushed  just  before  the  span- 
iels, nay,  just  at  the  muzzle  of  a  gun  that  had  been 
fired  at  them  :  whether  this  strange  laziness  was 
the  effect  of  a  recent  fatiguing  journey,  I  shall  not 
presume  to  say. 

Nightingales  not  only  never  reach  Northumber- 
land and  Scotland,  but  also,  as  I  have  been  always 
told,  Devonshire  and  Cornwall.  In  those  two  last 
counties  we  cannot  attribute  the  failure  of  them  to 
the  want  of  warmth :  the  defect  in  the  west  is 
rather  a  presumptive  argument  that  these  birds 
come  over  to  us  from  the  Continent  at  the  narrow- 
est passage,  and  do  not  stroll  so  far  westward. 

Let  me  hear  from  your  own  observation  wheth- 
er skylarks  do  not  dust.  I  think  they  do :  and  if 
they  do,  whether  they  wash  also. 

The  alauda  pratensis  of  Ray  was  the  poor  dupe 
that  was  educating  the  booby  of  a  cuckoo,  mention- 
ed in  my  letter  of  October  last.* 

Your  letter  came  too  late  for  me  to  procure  a 
ringousel  for  Mr.  Tunstal  during  their  autumnal 
visit,  but  I  will  endeavour  to  get  him  one  when 
they  call  on  us  again  in  April.  I  am  glad  that  you 
and  that  gentleman  saw  my  Andalusian  birds ;  I 
hope  they  answered  your  expectation.  Royston, 
or  gray  crows,  are  winter  birds,  that  come  much 
about  the  same  time  with  the  woodcock :  they,  like 
*  Letter  VII.,  Part  II. 


OF    SELBORNE.  173 

the  fieldfare  and  redwing,  have  no  apparent  reason 
for  migration ;  for,  as  they  fare  in  the  winter  like 
their  congeners,  so  might  they,  in  all  appearance, 
in  the  summer.  Was  not  Tenant,  when  a  boy, 
mistaken  ?  Did  he  not  find  a  missel-thrush's  nest, 
and  take  it  for  the  nest  of  a  fieldfare  ? 

The  stock-dove,  or  wood-pigeon,  anas,  Raii,  is 
the  last  winter  bird  of  passage  which  appears  with 
us,  and  is  not  seen  till  towards  the  end  of  Novem- 
ber. About  twenty  years  ago  they  abounded  in  the 
district  of  Selborne,  and  strings  of  them  were  seen, 
morning  and  evening,  that  reached  a  mile  or  more ; 
but  since  the  beechen  woods  have  been  greatly 
thinned,  they  have  much  decreased  in  number. 
The  ring-dove,  palumbus,  Raii,  stays  with  us  the 
whole  year,  and  has  several  broods  through  the 
summer. 

Before  I  received  your  letter  of  October  last,  I 
had  just  remarked  in  my  journal  that  the  trees  were 
unusually  green.  This  uncommon  verdure  lasted 
on  late  in  November,  and  may  be  accounted  for 
from  a  late  spring,  a  cool  and  moist  summer,  but 
more  particularly  from  vast  armies  of  chafers  or 
tree. beetles,  which  in  many  places  reduced  whole 
woods  to  a  leafless,  naked  state.  These  trees  shot 
again  at  midsummer,  and  then  retained  their  foliage 
till  very  late  in  the  year. 

My  musical  friend,  at  whose  house  [Fyfield, 
near  Andover]  I  am  now  visiting,  has  tried  all  the 
owls  that  are  his  near  neighbours  with  a  pitch-pipe 
set  at  concert  pitch,  and  finds  they  all  hoot  in  B  flat. 
He  will  examine  the  nightingales  next  spring. 

>2 


174  NATURAL    HISTORY 


LETTER     X. 

Selborne,  Aug.  1, 1771. 

Dear  Sir, — From  what  follows,  it  will  appear 
that  neither  owls  nor  cuckoos  keep  to  one  note. 
A  friend  remarks  that  many  (most)  of  his  owls  hoot 
in  B  flat,  but  that  one  went  almost  half  a  note  be- 
low A.  The  pipe  he  tried  their  notes  by  was  a 
common  half-crown  pitch-pipe,  such  as  masters  use 
for  tuning  of  harpsichords ;  it  was  the  common 
London  pitch. 

A  neighbour  of  mine,  who  is  said  to  have  a  nice 
ear,  remarks  that  the  owls  about  this  village  hoot 
in  three  different  keys,  in  G  flat  or  F  sharp,  in  B 
flat,  and  A  flat.  He  heard  two  hooting  to  each 
other,  the  one  in  A  flat,  and  the  other  in  B  flat. 
Query  :  Do  these  different  notes  proceed  from  dif- 
ferent species,  or  only  from  various  individuals? 
The  same  person  finds  upon  trial  that  the  note  of 
the  cuckoo  (of  which  we  have  but  one  species) 
varies  in  different  individuals ;  for  about  Selborne 
wood  he  found  they  were  mostly  in  D ;  he  heard 
two  sing  together,  the  one  in  D,  and  the  other  in 
D  flat,  which  made  a  disagreeable  concert :  he 
afterward  heard  one  in  D  sharp,  and  about  Wolmer 
Forest  some  in  C.  As  to  nightingales,  he  says 
that  their  notes  are  so  short  and  their  transitions  so 
rapid  that  he  cannot  well  ascertain  their  key. 
Perhaps  in  a  cage  and  in  a  room  their  notes  may 
be  more  distinguishable.  This  person  has  tried  to 
settle  the  notes  of  a  swift,  and  of  several  other 
small  birds,  but  cannot  bring  them  to  any  criterion. 

As  I  have  often  remarked  that  redwings  are  some 


OF    SELBORNE.  175 

of  the  first  birds  that  suffer  with  us  in  severe  weath- 
er, it  is  no  wonder  at  all  that  they  retreat  from 
Scandinavian  winters  ;  and  much  more  the  ordo  of 
grallce,  who  all,  to  a  bird,  forsake  the  northern  parts 
of  Europe  at  the  approach  of  winter,  "  Grallce  tan- 
quam  conjuratce  unanimiter  in  fugam  se  conjiciunt ; 
ne  earum  unicam  quidem  inter  nos  habitantem  inve- 
nire  possimus ;  ut  enim  cestate  in  australibus  degere 
nequeunt  ob  defectum  lumbricorum,  terramque  sic- 
cam ;  ita  nee  in  frigidis  ob  eandem  causam,"  says 
Ekmarck  the  Swede,  in  his  ingenious  little  treatise 
called  Migrationes  Avium,  which  by  all  means  you 
ought  to  read  while  your  thoughts  run  on  the  sub- 
ject of  migration. — See  Amcenitates  Academicce, 
vol.  iv.,  p.  565. 

Birds  may  be  so  circumstanced  as  to  be  obliged 
to  migrate  in  one  country  and  not  in  another ;  but 
the  grallce  (which  procure  their  food  from  marshes 
and  boggy  ground)  must  in  winter  forsake  the  more 
northerly  parts  of  Europe,  or  perish  for  want  of 
food. 

I  am  glad  you  are  making  inquiries  from  Lin- 
naeus concerning  the  woodcock ;  it  is  expected  of 
him  that  he  should  be  able  to  account  for  the  mo- 
tions and  manner  of  life  of  the  animals  of  his  own 
Fauna, 

Faunists,  as  you  observe,  are  too  apt  to  acquiesce 
in  bare  descriptions  and  a  few  synonymes  :  the  rea- 
son is  plain  ;  because  all  that  may  be  done  at  home 
in  a  man's  study ;  but  the  investigation  of  the  life 
and  conversation  of  animals  is  a  concern  of  much 
more  trouble  and  difficulty,  and  is  not  to  be  attained 
but  by  the  active  and  inquisitive,  and  by  those  that 
reside  much  in  the  country. 


176  NATURAL    HISTORY 

Foreign  systematists  are,  I  observe,  much  too 
vague  in  their  specific  differences,  which  are  almost 
universally  constituted  by  one  or  two  particular 
marks,  the  rest  of  the  description  running  in  gen- 
eral terms.  But  our  countryman,  the  excellent  Mr. 
Ray,  is  the  only  describer  that  conveys  some  pre- 
cise idea  in  every  term  or  word,  maintaining  his  su- 
periority over  his  followers  and  imitators  in  spite 
of  the  advantages  of  fresh  discoveries  and  modern 
information. 

At  this  distance  of  years  it  is  not  in  my  power 
to  recollect  at  what  periods  woodcocks  used  to  be 
sluggish  or  alert  when  I  was  a  sportsman ;  but, 
upon  my  mentioning  this  circumstance  to  a  friend, 
he  thinks  he  has  observed  them  to  be  remarkably 
listless  against  snowy  foul  weather :  if  this  should 
be  the  case,  then  the  inaptitude  for  flying  arises 
only  from  an  eagerness  for  food,  as  sheep  are  ob- 
served to  be  very  intent  on  grazing  against  stormy 
wet  evenings. 


LETTER     XI. 

Selborne,  Feb.  8,  1772. 
Dear  Sir, — When  I  ride  about  in  winter,  and 
see  such  prodigious  flocks  of  various  kinds  of  birds, 
I  cannot  help  admiring  at  these  congregations,  and 
wishing  that  it  was  in  my  power  to  account  for 
those  appearances,  almost  peculiar  to  the  season. 
The  two  great  motives  which  regulate  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  brute  creation  are  love  of  their  offspring 
and  hunger.  Whether  either  of  these  should  seem 
to  be  the  ruling  passion  in  the  matter  of  congre- 


OF   SELBORNE.  177 

gating  is  to  be  considered.  As  to  love  and  the  care 
of  their  young,  that  is  out  of  the  question  at  this 
time  of  the  year. 

Now  as  to  the  business  of  food.  As  these  ani- 
mals are  actuated  by  instinct  to  hunt  for  necessary 
food,  they  should  not,  one  would  suppose,  crowd 
together  in  pursuit  of  sustenance,  at  a  time  when  it 
is  most  likely  to  fail ;  yet  such  associations  do  take 
place  in  hard  weather  chiefly,  and  thicken  as  the 
severity  increases.  As  some  kind  of  self-interest 
and  self-defence  is  no  doubt  the  motive  for  the  pro- 
ceeding, may  it  not  arise  from  the  helplessness  of 
their  state  in  such  rigorous  seasons,  as  men  crowd 
together  when  under  great  calamities,  though  they 
know  not  why  ?  Perhaps  approximation  may  dis- 
pel some  degree  of  cold,  and  a  crowd  may  make 
each  individual  appear  safer  from  the  ravages  of 
birds  of  prey  and  other  dangers. 

If  I  admire  when  I  see  how  much  congenerous 
birds  love  to  congregate,  I  am  the  more  struck 
when  I  see  incongruous  ones  in  such  strict  amity. 
If  we  do  not  much  wonder  to  see  a  flock  of  rooks 
usually  attended  by  a  train  of  daws,  yet  it  is  strange 
that  the  former  should  so  frequently  have  a  flight  of 
starlings  for  their  satellites.  Is  it  because  rooks 
have  a  more  discerning  scent  than  their  attendants, 
and  can  lead  them  to  spots  more  productive  of 
food  1  Anatomists  say  that  rooks,  by  reason  of  two 
large  nerves  which  run  down  between  the  eyes  into 
the  upper  mandible,  have  a  more  delicate  feeling  in 
their  beaks  than  other  round-billed  birds,  and  can 
grope  for  their  meat  when  out  of  sight.  Perhaps, 
then,  their  associates  attend  them  on  the  motives  of 
interest,  as  greyhounds  wait  on  the  motions  of  their 


178  NATURAL    HISTORY 

finders,  and  as  lions  are  said  to  do  on  the  yelping 
of  jackals.  Lapwings  and  starlings  sometimes  as- 
sociate. 


LETTER     XII. 

March  9,  1772. 
Dear  Sir, — As  a  gentleman  and  myself  were 
walking  on  the  4th  of  last  November  round  the 
seabanks  at  Newhaven,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Lewes  River,  in  pursuit  of  natural  knowledge,  we 
were  surprised  to  see  three  house-swallows  gliding 
very  swiftly  by  us.  That  morning  was  rather  chilly, 
with  the  wind  at  northwest ;  but  the  tenour  of  the 
weather  for  some  time  before  had  been  delicate, 
and  the  noons  remarkably  warm.  From  this  inci- 
dent, and  from  repeated  accounts  which  I  met  with, 
I  am  more  and  more  induced  to  believe  that  many 
of  the  swallow  kind  do  not  depart  from  this  island, 
but  lay  themselves  up  in  holes  and  caverns,  and  do, 
insect-like  and  bat-like,  come  forth  at  mild  times, 
and  then  retire  again  to  their  latebrcB.  Nor  make 
I  the  least  doubt  but  that,  if  I  lived  at  Newhaven, 
Seaford,  Brighthelmstone,  or  any  of  those  towns 
near  the  chalk-cliffs  of  the  Sussex  coast,  by  proper 
observations,  I  should  see  swallows  stirring  at  peri- 
ods of  the  winter,  when  the  noons  were  soft  and 
inviting,  and  the  sun  warm  and  invigorating.  And 
I  am  the  more  of  this  opinion  from  what  I  have  re- 
marked during  some  of  our  late  springs,  that,  though 
some  swallows  did  make  their  appearance  about  the 
usual  time,  viz.,  the  13th  or  14th  of  April,  yet, 


OF    SELBORNE.  179 

meeting  with  a  harsh  reception,  and  blustering, 
cold  northeast  winds,  they  immediately  withdrew, 
absconding  for  several  days  till  the  weather  gave 
them  better  encouragement. 


LETTER     XIII. 

April  12,  1772. 

Dear  Sir, — While  I  was  in  Sussex  last  autumn, 
my  residence  was  at  the  village  near  Lewes,  from 
whence  I  had  formerly  the  pleasure  of  writing  to 
you.  On  the  1st  of  November  I  remarked  that  the 
old  Tortoise,  formerly  mentioned,  began  first  to 


dig  the  ground  in  order  to  the  forming  of  its  hyber- 
naculum,  which  it  had  fixed  on  just  beside  a  great 
tuft  of  hepaticas.  It  scrapes  out  the  ground  with 
its  fore  feet,  and  throws  it  up  over  its  back  with  its 
hind  ;  but  the  motion  of  its  legs  is  ridiculously  slow, 
little  exceeding  the  hourhand  of  a  clock.  Nothing 
can  be  more  assiduous  than  this  creature,  night  and 
day,  in  scooping  the  earth,  and  forcing  its  great 
body  into  the  cavity  ;  but,  as  the  noons  of  that  sea- 
son proved  unusually  warm  and  sunny,  it  was  con- 
tinually interrupted  and  called  forth  by  the  heat  in 
the  middle  of  the  day  ;  and  though  I  continued  there 


180  NATURAL    HISTORY 

till  the  13th  of  November,  yet  the  work  remained 
unfinished.  Harsher  weather  and  frosty  mornings 
would  have  quickened  its  operations.  No  part  of 
its  behaviour  ever  struck  me  more  than  the  extreme 
timidity  it  always  expresses  with  regard  to  rain  ; 
for,  though  it  has  a  shell  that  would  secure  it  against 
the  wheel  of  a  loaded  cart,  yet  does  it  discover  as 
much  solicitude  about  rain  as  a  lady  dressed  in  all 
her  best  attire,  shuffling  away  on  the  first  sprink- 
lings, and  running  its  head  up  in  a  corner.  If  at- 
tended to,  it  becomes  an  excellent  weather-glass  ; 
for  as  sure  as  it  walks  elate,  and,  as  it  were,  on  tip- 
toe, feeding  with  great  earnestness  in  a  morning, 
so  sure  will  it  rain  before  night.  It  is  totally  a  di- 
urnal animal,  and  never  pretends  to  stir  after  it  be- 
comes dark.  The  tortoise,  like  other  reptiles,  has 
an  arbitrary  stomach  as  well  as  lungs,  and  can  re- 
frain from  eating  as  well  as  breathing  for  a  great 
part  of  the  year.  When  first  awakened  it  eats 
nothing,  nor  again  in  the  autumn  before  it  retires : 
through  the  height  of  the  summer  it  feeds  vora- 
ciously, devouring  all  the  food  that  comes  in  its 
way.  I  was  much  taken  with  its  sagacity  in  dis- 
cerning those  that  do  it  kind  offices ;  for,  as  soon 
as  the  good  old  lady  comes  in  sight  who  has  wait- 
ed on  it  for  more  than  thirty  years,  it  hobbles  to- 
wards its  benefactress  with  awkward  alacrity,  but 
remains  inattentive  to  strangers.  Thus  not  only 
"  the  ox  knoweth  his  owner,  and  the  ass  his  mas- 
ter's crib,"*  but  the  most  abject  reptile  and  torpid 
of  beings  distinguishes  the  hand  that  feeds  it,  and 
is  touched  with  the  feelings  of  gratitude. 

P.S. — In  about  three  days  after  I  left  Sussex, 
*  Isaiah,  i.,  3. 


OF    SELBORNE.  181 

the  tortoise  retired  into  the  ground  under  the  he- 
patica. 


LETTER     XIV. 

Selborne,  March  26,  1773. 

Dear  Sir, — The  more  I  reflect  on  the  aropyrj 
of  animals,  the  more  I  am  astonished  at  its  effects. 
Nor  is  the  violence  of  this  affection  more  wonder- 
ful than  the  shortness  of  its  duration.  Thus  every 
hen  is  in  her  turn  the  virago  of  the  yard,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  helplessness  of  her  brood,  and  will 
fly  in  the  face  of  a  dog  or  sow  in  defence  of  those 
chickens  which  in  a  few  weeks  she  will  drive  be- 
fore her  with  relentless  cruelty. 

This  affection  sublimes  the  passions,  quickens 
the  invention,  and  sharpens  the  sagacity  of  the 
brute  creation.  Thus  a  hen,  when  she  becomes  a 
mother,  is  no  longer  that  placid  bird  she  used  to  be  ; 
but,  with  feathers  standing  on  end,  wings  hovering, 
and  clucking  note,  she  runs  about  like  one  possess- 
ed. Dames  will  throw  themselves  in  the  way  of  the 
greatest  danger  in  order  to  avert  it  from  their  pro- 
geny. Thus  a  partridge  will  tumble  along  before 
a  sportsman  in  order  to  draw  away  the  dogs  from 
her  helpless  covey.*  In  the  time  of  niditication, 
the  most  feeble  birds  will  assault  the  most  rapa- 

*  A  hen  partridge  came  out  of  a  ditch,  and  ran  along  shivering 
with  her  wings,  and  crying  out  as  if  wounded  and  unable  to 
get  from  us.  While  the  dam  acted  this  distress,  the  boy  who 
attended  me  saw  her  brood,  that  was  small  and  unable  to  fly, 
run  for  shelter  into  an  old  fox-earth  under  the  bank.  So  won- 
derful a  power  is  instinct. — White's  Observations  on  Birds. 

Q 


182  NATURAL   HISTORY 

cious.  All  the  hirundines  of  a  village  are  up  in  arms 
at  the  sight  of  a  hawk,  whom  they  will  persecute 
till  he  leaves  that  district.  A  very  exact  observer 
has  often  remarked  that  a  pair  of  ravens,  nesting 
in  the  Rock  of  Gibraltar,  would  suffer  no  vulture 
or  eagle  to  rest  near  their  station,  but  would  drive 
them  from  the  hill  with  an  amazing  fury  :  even  the 
blue  thrush,  at  the  season  of  hatching,  would  dart 
out  from  the  clefts  of  the  rock  to  chase  away  the 
kestrel  or  the  sparrow-hawk.  If  you  stand  near 
the  nest  of  a  bird  that  has  young,  she  will  not  be 
induced  to  betray  them  by  an  inadvertent  fondness, 
but  will  wait  about  at  a  distance,  with  meat  in  her 
mouth,  for  an  hour  together. 

Should  I  farther  corroborate  what  I  have  ad- 
vanced above  by  some  anecdotes  which  I  probably 
may  have  mentioned  before  in  conversation,  yet 
you  will,  I  trust,  pardon  the  repetition  for  the  sake 
of  the  illustration. 

The  fly- catcher  of  the  Zoology  (the  stoparola  of 
Ray)  builds  every  year  in  the  vines  that  grow  on 
the  walls  of  my  house.  A  pair  of  these  little  birds 
had  one  year  inadvertently  placed  their  nest  on  a 
naked  bough,  perhaps  in  a  shady  time,  not  being 
aware  of  the  inconvenience  that  followed.  But  a 
hot  sunny  season  coming  on  before  the  brood  was 
half  fledged,  the  reflection  of  the  wall  became  in- 
supportable, and  must  inevitably  have  destroyed 
the  tender  young  had  not  affection  suggested  an 
expedient,  and  prompted  the  parent  birds  to  hover 
over  the  nest  all  the  hotter  hours,  while,  with  wings 
expanded  and  mouths  gaping  for  breath,  they 
screened  off  the  heat  from  their  suffering  offspring. 

A  farther  instance  I  once  saw  of  notable  saga- 


OF    SELBORNE.  183 

city  in  a  willow-wren,  which  had  built  in  a  bank  in 
my  fields.  This  bird  a  friend  and  myself  had  ob- 
served as  she  sat  in  her  nest,  but  were  particularly 
careful  not  to  disturb  her,  though  we  saw  she  eyed 
us  with  some  degree  of  jealousy.  Some  days  after, 
as  we  passed  that  way,  we  were  desirous  of  re- 
marking how  this  brood  went  on  ;  but  no  nest  could 
be  found  till  1  happened  to  take  up  a  large  bundle 
of  long  green  moss,  as  it  were  carelessly  thrown 
over  the  nest,  in  order  to  dodge  the  eye  of  any  im- 
pertinent intruder. 

A  still  more  remarkable  mixture  of  sagacity  and 
instinct  occurred  to  me  one  day,  as  my  people  were 
pulling  off  the  lining  of  a  hotbed  in  order  to  add 
some  fresh  dung.  From  out  of  the  side  of  this  bed 
leaped  an  animal  with  great  agility,  that  made  a 
most  grotesque  figure  ;  nor  was  it  without  great 
difficulty  that  it  could  be  taken,  when  it  proved  to 
be  a  large  white-bellied  field-mouse,  with  three  or 
four  young  clinging  to  her  by  their  mouths  and  feet. 
It  was  amazing  that  the  desultory  and  rapid  motions 
of  this  dam  should  not  oblige  her  litter  to  quit  their 
hold,  especially  when  it  appeared  that  they  were  so 
young  as  to  be  both  naked  and  blind ! 


LETTER     XV. 


Selbome,  July  8,  1773. 

Dear  Sir, — Some  young  men  went  down  lately 

to  a  pond  on  the  verge  of  Wolmer  Forest  to  hunt 

flappers,  or  young  wild  ducks,  many  of  which  they 

caught,  and,  among  the  rest,  some  very  minute  yet 


184  NATURAL   HISTORY 

well-fledged  wild-fowls  alive,  which  upon  examina- 
tion I  found  to  be  Teals.     I  did  not  know  till  then 


that  teals  ever  built  in  the  south  of  England,  and 
was  much  pleased  with  the  discovery :  this  I  look 
upon  as  a  great  stroke  in  natural  history. 

We  have  had,  ever  since  I  can  remember,  a  pair 
of  white  owls  that  constantly  place  their  nest  under 
the  eaves  of  this  church.  As  I  have  paid  good 
attention  to  the  manner  of  life  of  these  birds  during 
the  summer  through,  the  following  remarks  may 
not,  perhaps,  be  unacceptable.  About  an  hour  be- 
fore sunset  (for  then  the  mice  begin  to  run)  they 
sally  forth  in  quest  of  prey,  and  hunt  all  round  the 
hedges  of  meadows  and  small  enclosures  for  them, 
which  seem  to  be  their  only  food.  In  this  irregular 
country  we  can  stand  on  an  eminence  and  see  them 
beat  the  fields  over  like  a  setting-dog,  and  often 
drop  down  in  the  grass  or  corn.  I  have  minuted 
these  birds  with  my  watch  for  an  hour  together, 
and  have  found  that  they  return  to  their  nest,  the 
one  or  the  other  of  them,  about  once  in  five  minutes ; 
reflecting,  at  the  same  time,  on  the  adroitness  that 


OF    SELBORNE.  185 

every  amimal  is  possessed  of  as  far  as  regards  the 
well-being  of  itself  and  offspring.  But  a  piece  of 
address  which  they  show  when  they  return  load- 
ed, should  not,  I  think,  be  passed  over  in  silence. 
As  they  take  their  prey  with  their  claws,  so  they 
carry  it  in  their  claws  to  their  nest ;  but,  as  the 
feet  are  necessary  in  their  ascent  under  the  tiles, 
they  constantly  perch  first  on  the  roof  of  the  chan- 
cel, and  shift  the  mouse  from  their  claws  to  their 
bill,  that  the  feet  may  be  at  liberty  to  take  hold  of 
the  plate  on  the  wall  as  they  are  rising  under  the 
eaves. 

White  Owls  seem  not  (but  in  this  I  am  not  pos- 


itive) to  hoot  at  all ;  all  that  clamorous  hooting  ap- 
pears to  me  to  come  from  the  wood  kinds.  The 
white  owl  does  indeed  snore  and  hiss  in  a  tremen- 
dous manner  ;  and  these  menaces  will  answer  the 
intention  of  intimidating,  for  I  have  known  a  whole 
village  up  in  arms  on  such  an  occasion.  White 
owls  also  often  scream  horribly  as  they  fly  along ; 
from  this  screaming  probably  arose  the  common 

Q2 


186  NATURAL    HISTORY 

people's  imaginary  species  of  screech-owl,  which 
they  superstitiously  think  attends  the  windows  of 
dying  persons.  The  plumage  of  the  remiges  of  the 
wings  of  every  species  of  owl  that  I  have  yet  ex- 
amined is  remarkably  soft  and  pliant.  Perhaps  it 
may  be  necessary  that  the  wings  of  these  birds 
should  not  make  much  resistance  or  rushing,  that 
they  may  be  enabled  to  steal  through  the  air  un- 
heard upon  a  nimble  and  watchful  quarry. 

While  I  am  talking  of  owls,  it  may  not  be  im- 
proper to  mention  what  I  was  told  by  a  gentleman 
of  the  county  of  Wilts  :  As  they  were  grubbing  a 
vast  hollow  pollard  ash  that  had  been  the  mansion 
of  owls  for  centuries,  he  discovered  at  the  bottom 
a  mass  of  matter  that  at  first  he  could  not  account 
for.  After  some  examination,  he  found  that  it  was 
a  congeries  of  the  bones  of  mice  (and  perhaps  of 
birds  and  bats),  that  had  been  heaping  together  for 
ages,  being  cast  up  in  pellets  out  of  the  crops  of 
many  generations  of  inhabitants.  For  owls  cast 
up  the  bones,  fur,  and  feathers  of  what  they  devour, 
after  the  manner  of  hawks.  He  believes,  he  told 
me,  that  there  were  bushels  of  this  kind  of  sub- 
stance. 

When  brown  owls  hoot,  their  throats  swell  as 
big  as  a  hen's  egg.  I  have  known  an  owl  of  this 
species  live  a  full  year  without  any  water.  Per- 
haps the  case  may  be  the  same  with  all  birds  of 
prey.  When  owls  fly,  they  stretch  out  their  legs 
behind  them  as  a  balance  to  their  large  heavy 
heads ;  for,  as  most  nocturnal  birds  have  large 
eyes  and  ears,  they  must  have  large  heads  to  con- 
tain them.  Large  eyes,  I  presume,  are  necessary 
to  collect  every  ray  of  light,  and  large  concave 


OF    SELBORNE.  187 

ears  to  command  the  smallest  degree  of  sound  or 
noise. 


It  will  be  proper  to  premise  here,  that  the  sixteenth,  eighteenth, 
twentieth,  and  twenty-first  letters  have  been  published  already 
in  the  Philosophical  Transactions  ;  but,  as  nicer  observation 
has  furnished  several  corrections  and  additions,  it  is  hoped  that 
the  republication  of  them  will  not  give  offence,  especially  as 
these  sheets  would  be  very  imperfect  without  them,  and  as  they 
will  be  new  to  many  readers  who  had  no  opportunity  of  seeing 
them  when  they  made  their  first  appearance. 


The  hirundines  are  a  most  inoffensive,  harmless, 
entertaining,  social,  and  useful  tribe  of  birds  ;  they 
touch  no  fruit  in  our  gardens ;  delight,  all  except 
one  species,  in  attaching  themselves  to  our  houses  ; 
amuse  us  with  their  migrations,  songs,  and  mar- 
vellous agility  ;  and  clear  our  outlets  from  the  an- 
noyances of  gnats  and  other  troublesome  insects. 
Some  districts  in  the  South  Seas,  near  Guyaquil,* 
are  desolated,  it  seems,  by  the  infinite  swarms  of 
venomous  moschetoes  which  fill  the  air,  and  render 
those  coasts  insupportable.  It  would  be  worth  in- 
quiring whether  any  species  of  hirundines  is  found 
in  those  regions.  Whoever  contemplates  the  myr- 
iads of  insects  that  sport  in  the  sunbeams  of  a 
summer  evening  in  this  country,  will  soon  be  con- 
vinced to  what  degree  our  atmosphere  would  be 
choked  with  them  was  it  not  for  the  friendly  inter- 
position of  the  swallow  tribe. 

Many  species  of  birds  have  their  peculiar  lice ; 
but  the  hirundines  alone  seem  to  be  annoyed  with 
dipterous  insects,  which  infest  every  species,  and 
are  so  large,  in  proportion  to  themselves,  that  they 

*  See  Ulloa's  Travels. 


188  NATURAL   HISTORY 

must  be  extremely  irksome  and  injurious  to  them. 
These  are  the  hippoboscce  hirundines,  with  narrow 
subulated  wings,  abounding  in  every  nest,  and  are 
hatched  by  the  warmth  of  the  bird's  own  body 
during  incubation,  and  crawl  about  under  its  feath- 
ers. 

A  species  of  them  is  familiar  to  horsemen  in  the 
south  of  England,  under  the  name  of  forest-fly, 
and,  to  some,  of  sidefly,  from  its  running  sideways 
like  a  crab.  It  creeps  under  the  tails  and  about 
the  groins  of  horses,  which,  at  their  first  coming 
out  of  the  north,  are  rendered  half  frantic  by  the 
tickling  sensation,  while  our  own  breed  little  re- 
gards them. 

The  curious  Reaumur  discovered  the  large  eggs, 
or  rather  pupa,  of  these  flies,  as  big  as  the  flies 
themselves,  which  he  hatched  in  his  own  bosom. 
Any  person  that  will  take  the  trouble  to  examine 
the  old  nests  of  either  species  of  swallows,  may 
find  in  them  the  black  shining  cases  or  skins  of  the 
pupa  of  these  insects ;  but  for  other  particulars, 
too  long  for  this  place,  we  refer  the  reader  to  l'His- 
toire  d'Insectes  of  that  admirable  entomologist, 
torn,  iv.,  pi.  11. 


LETTER     XVI. 


Selborne,  Nov.  20,  1773. 
Dear  Sir, — In  obedience  to  your  injunctions,  I 
sit  down  to  give  you  some  account  of  the  house- 
martin  or  martin ;  and,  if  my  monography  of  this 
little  domestic  and  familiar  bird  should  happen  to 


OF    SELBORNE.  189 

meet  with  your  approbation,  I  may  probably  soon 
extend  my  inquiries  to  the  rest  of  the  British  hirun- 
dines :  the  swallow,  the  swift,  and  the  bank- martin. 
A  few  house-martins  begin  to  appear  about  the 
16th  of  April,  usually  some  few  days  later  than  the 
swallow.  For  some  time  after  they  appear,  the 
hirundines  in  general  pay  no  attention  to  the  busi- 
ness of  nidification,  but  play  and  sport  about,  either 
to  recruit  from  the  fatigue  of  their  journey,  if  they 
do  migrate  at  all,  or  else  that  their  blood  may  re- 
cover its  true  tone  and  texture,  after  it  has  been  so 
long  benumbed  by  the  severities  of  winter.  About 
the  middle  of  May,  if  the  weather  be  fine,  the  mar- 
tin begins  to  think  in  earnest  of  providing  a  man- 
sion for  its  family.  The  crust  or  shell  of  this  nest 
seems  to  be  formed  of  such  dirt  or  loam  as  comes 
most  readily  to  hand,  and  is  tempered  and  wrought 
together  with  little  bits  of  broken  straws  to  render 
it  tough  and  tenacious.  As  this  bird  often  builds 
against  a  perpendicular  wall,  without  any  projecting 
ledge  under,  it  requires  its  utmost  efforts  to  get  the 
first  foundation  firmly  fixed,  so  that  it  may  safely 
carry  the  superstructure.  On  this  occasion  the  bird 
not  only  clings  with  its  claws,  but  partly  supports 
itself  by  strongly  inclining  its  tail  against  the  wall, 
making  that  a  fulcrum,  and,  thus  steadied,  it  works 
and  plasters  the  materials  into  the  face  of  the  brick 
or  stone.  But  then,  that  this  work  may  not,  while 
it  is  soft  and  green,  pull  itself  down  by  its  own 
weight,  the  provident  architect  has  prudence  and 
forbearance  enough  not  to  advance  her  work  too 
fast,  but,  by  building  only  in  the  morning,  and  by 
dedicating  the  rest  of  the  day  to  food  and  amuse- 
ment, gives  it  sufficient  time  to  dry  and  harden. 


190  NATURAL    HISTORY 

About  half  an  inch  seems  to  be  a  sufficient  layer 
for  a  day.  Thus  careful  workmen,  when  they  build 
mud-walls  (informed  at  first,  perhaps,  by  this  little 
bird),  raise  but  a  moderate  layer  at  a  time,  and  then 
desist,  lest  the  work  should  become  top-heavy,  and 
so  be  ruined  by  its  own  weight.  By  this  method, 
in  about  ten  or  twelve  days,  is  formed  an  hemispher- 
ic nest  with  a  small  aperture  towards  the  top,  strong, 
compact,  and  warm,  and  perfectly  fitted  for  all  the 
purposes  for  which  it  was  intended.  But  then  no- 
thing is  more  common  than  for  the  house-sparrow, 
as  soon  as  the  shell  is  finished,  to  seize  on  it  as  its 
own,  to  eject  the  owner,  and  to  line  it  after  its  own 
manner. 

After  so  much  labour  is  bestowed  in  erecting  a 
mansion,  as  nature  seldom  works  in  vain,  martins 
will  live  on  for  several  years  together  in  the  same 
nest,  where  it  happens  to  be  well  sheltered  and 
secure  from  the  injuries  of  weather. l  The  shell  or 
crust  of  the  nest  is  a  sort  of  rustic-work,  full  of 
knobs  and  protuberances  on  the  outside  ;  nor  is 
the  inside  of  those  that  I  have  examined  smoothed 
with  any  exactness  at  all,  but  is  rendered  soft  and 
warm,  and  fit  for  incubation,  by  a  lining  of  small 
straws,  grasses,  and  feathers,  and  sometimes  by  a 
bed  of  moss  interwoven  with  wool.  In  this  nest 
the  hen  lays  from  three  to  five  white  eggs. 

At  first,  when  the  young  are  hatched,  and  are  in 
a  naked  and  helpless  condition,  the  parent  birds, 
with  tender  assiduity,  carry  out  what  comes  away 
from  their  young.  Was  it  not  for  this  affectionate 
cleanliness,  the  nestlings  would  soon  be  burned  up, 
and  destroyed,  in  so  deep  and  hollow  a  nest,  by 
their  own  caustic  excrement.     In  the  quadruped 


OF    SELBORNE.  191 

creation  the  same  neat  precaution  is  made  use  of, 
particularly  among  dogs  and  cats.     But  in  birds 
there  seems  to  be  a  particular  provision,  that  the 
dung  of  nestlings  is  enveloped  in  a  tough  kind  of 
jelly,  and  therefore  is  the  easier  conveyed  off  with- 
out soiling  or  daubing.     Yet,  as  Nature  is  cleanly 
in  all  her  ways,  the  young  perform  this  office  for 
themselves  in  a  little  time  by  thrusting  their  tails 
out  at  the  aperture  of  their  nest.     As  the  young  of 
small  birds  presently  arrive  at  their  rjXutia,  or  full 
growth,  they  soon  become  impatient  of  confinement, 
and  sit  all  day  with  their  heads  out  at  the  orifice, 
where  the  dams,  by  clinging  to  the  nest,  supply 
them  with  food  from  morning  to  night.     For  a  time 
the  young  are  fed  on  the  wing  by  their  parents  ; 
but  the  feat  is  done  by  so  quick  and  almost  imper- 
ceptible a  slight,  that  a  person  must  have  attended 
very  exactly  to  their  motions  before  he  would  be 
able  to  perceive  it.     As  soon  as  the  young  are  able 
to  shift  for  themselves,  the  dams  immediately  turn 
their  thoughts  to  the  business  of  a  second  brood  ; 
while  the  first  flight,  shaken  off  and  rejected  by 
their  nurses,  congregate  in  great  flocks,  and  are 
the  birds  that  are  seen  clustering  and  hovering,  on 
sunny  mornings  and  evenings,  round  towers  and 
steeples,  and  on  the  roofs  of  churches  and  houses. 
These  congregations  usually  begin  to  take  place 
about  the  first  week  in  August,  and  therefore  we 
may  conclude  that  by  that  time  the  first  flight  is 
pretty  well  over.     The  young  of  this  species  do  not 
quit  their  abodes  all  together,  but  the  more  forward 
birds  get  abroad  some  days  before  the  rest.     These, 
approaching  the  eaves  of  buildings,  and  playing 
about  before  them,  make  people  think  that  several 


192  NATURAL   HISTORY 

old  ones  attend  one  nest.  They  are  often  capri- 
cious in  fixing  on  a  nesting-place,  beginning  many 
edifices,  and  leaving  them  unfinished  ;  but  when 
once  a  nest  is  completed  in  a  sheltered  place,  it 
serves  for  several  seasons.  Those  which  lay  their 
eggs  in  a  ready-finished  house  get  the  start  in 
hatching  of  those  that  build  new  by  ten  days  or  a 
fortnight.  These  industrious  artificers  are  at  their 
labours  in  the  long  days  before  four  in  the  morning : 
when  they  fix  their  materials  they  plaster  them  on 
with  their  chins,  moving  their  heads  with  a  quick 
vibratory  motion.  They  dip  and  wash  as  they  fly 
sometimes  in  very  hot  weather,  but  not  so  frequently 
as  swallows.  It  has  been  observed  that  martins 
usually  build  to  a  northeast  or  northwest  aspect, 
that  the  heat  of  the  sun  may  not  crack  and  destroy 
their  nests  ;  but  instances  are  also  remembered 
where  they  built  for  many  years  in  vast  abundance 
in  a  hot,  stifled  inn-yard,  against  a  wall  facing  to 
the  south. 

Birds  in  general  are  wise  in  their  choice  of  situa- 
tion ;  but  in  this  neighbourhood,  every  summer  is 
seen  a  strong  proof  to  the  contrary  at  a  house 
without  eaves,  in  an  exposed  district,  where  some 
martins  build  year  by  year  in  the  corners  of  the 
windows.  But,  as  the  corners  of  these  windows 
(which  face  to  the  southeast  and  southwest)  are 
too  shallow,  the  nests  are  washed  down  every  hard 
rain  ;  and  yet  these  birds  drudge  on  to  no  purpose 
from  summer  to  summer,  without  changing  their 
aspect  or  house.  It  is  a  piteous  sight  to  see  them 
labouring  when  half  their  nest  is  washed  away,  and 
bringing  dirt  "generis  lapsi  sarcire  ruinas."  Thus 
is  instinct  a  most  wonderfully  unequal  faculty,  in 


OF    SELBORNE.  193 

some  instances  so  much  above  reason,  in  other 
respects  so  far  below  it !  Martins  love  to  frequent 
towns,  especially  if  there  are  great  lakes  and  rivers 
at  hand  ;  nay,  they  even  affect  the  close  air  of 
London.  And  I  have  not  only  seen  them  nesting 
in  the  Borough,  but  even  in  the  Strand  and  Fleet- 
street  ;  but  then  it  was  obvious,  from  the  dinginess 
of  their  aspect,  that  their  feathers  partook  of  the 
filth  of  that  sooty  atmosphere.  Martins  are  by  far 
the  least  agile  of  the  four  species  ;  their  wings  and 
tails  are  short,  and  therefore  they  are  not  capable 
of  such  surprising  turns,  and  quick  and  glancing 
evolutions,  as  the  swallow.  Accordingly,  they 
make  use  of  a  placid,  easy  motion,  in  a  middle 
region  of  the  air,  seldom  mounting  to  any  great 
height,  and  never  sweeping  along  together  over  the 
surface  of  the  ground  or  water.  They  do  not 
wander  far  for  food,  but  affect  sheltered  districts, 
over  some  lake,  or  under  some  hanging  wood,  or 
in  some  hollow  vale,  especially  in  windy  weather. 
They  build  the  latest  of  all  the  swallow  kind  :  in 
1772  they  had  nestlings  on  to  October  the  21st, 
and  are  never  without  unfledged  young  as  late  as 
Michaelmas. 

As  the  summer  declines,  the  congregating  flocks 
increase  in  numbers  daily  by  the  constant  succes- 
sion of  the  second  broods,  till  at  last  they  swarm 
in  myriads  upon  myriads  round  the  villages  on  the 
Thames,  darkening  the  face  of  the  sky  as  they  fre- 
quent the  aits  of  that  river,  where  they  roost. 
They  retire — the  bulk  of  them,  I  mean — in  vast 
flocks  together,  about  the  beginning  of  October ; 
but  have  appeared,  of  late  years,  in  a  considerable 
flight  in  this  neighbourhood,  for  one  day  or  two,  as 

R 


194  NATURAL   HISTORY 

late  as  November  the  3d  and  6th,  after  they  were 
supposed  to  have  gone  for  more  than  a  fortnight. 
They  therefore  withdraw  from  us  the  latest  of  any 
species.  Unless  these  birds  are  very  short-lived 
indeed,  or  unless  they  do  not  return  to  the  district 
where  they  are  bred,  they  must  undergo  vast  de- 
vastations somehow  and  somewhere  ;  for  the  birds 
that  return  yearly  bear  no  manner  of  proportion 
to  the  birds  that  retire. 

House-martins  are  distinguished  from  their  con- 
geners by  having  their  legs  covered  with  soft  downy 
feathers  down  to  their  toes.  They  are  no  song- 
sters, but  twitter  in  a  pretty,  inward,  soft  manner  in 
their  nests.  During  the  time  of  hatching  they  are 
often  greatly  molested  with  fleas. 


LETTER     XVII. 

Ringmer,  near  Lewes,  Dec.  9,  1773. 

Dear  Sir, — I  received  your  last  favour  just  as 
I  was  setting  out  for  this  place,  and  am  pleased  to 
find  that  my  monography  met  with  your  approba- 
tion. My  remarks  are  the  result  of  many  years' 
observation,  and  are,  I  trust,  true  in  the  whole, 
though  I  do  not  pretend  to  say  that  they  are  per- 
fectly void  of  mistake,  or  that  a  more  nice  observer 
might  not  make  many  additions,  since  subjects  of 
this  kind  are  inexhaustible. 

If  you  think  my  letter  worthy  the  notice  of  your 
respectable  society,  you  are  at  liberty  to  lay  it  be- 
fore them  ;  and  they  will  consider  it,  I  hope,  as  it 
was  intended,  as  an  humble  attempt  to  promote  a 


OF    SELBORNE.  195 

more  minute  inquiry  into  natural  history — into  the 
life  and  conversation  of  animals.  Perhaps,  here- 
after, I  may  be  induced  to  take  the  house-swallow 
under  consideration,  and  from  that  proceed  to  the 
rest  of  the  British  hirundines. 

Though  I  have  now  travelled  the  Sussex  Downs 
upward  of  thirty  years,  yet  I  still  investigate  that 
chain  of  majestic  mountains  with  fresh  admiration 
year  by  year,  and  I  think  I  see  new  beauties  every 
time  I  traverse  it.  This  range,  which  runs  from 
Chichester  eastward  as  far  as  East  Bourn,  is  about 
sixty  miles  in  length,  and  is  called  the  South 
Downs,  properly  speaking,  only  round  Lewes.  As 
you  pass  along,  you  command  a  noble  view  of  the 
wold  or  weald  on  one  hand,  and  the  broad  downs 
and  sea  on  the  other.  Mr.  Ray  used  to  visit  a 
family*  just  at  the  foot  of  these  hills,  and  was  so 
ravished  with  the  prospect  from  Plympton  Plain, 
near  Lewes,  that  he  mentions  those  capes  in  his 
"  Wisdom  of  God  in  the  Works  of  the  Creation" 
with  the  utmost  satisfaction,  and  thinks  them  equal 
to  anything  he  had  seen  in  the  finest  parts  of  Eu- 
rope. 

For  my  own  part,  I  think  there  is  somewhat  pe- 
culiarly sweet  and  amusing  in  the  shapely-figured 
aspect  of  chalk-hills  in  preference  to  those  of 
stone,  which  are  rugged,  broken,  abrupt,  and  shape- 
less. 

Perhaps  I  may  be  singular  in  my  opinion,  and 
not  so  happy  as  to  convey  to  you  the  same  idea ; 
but  I  never  contemplate  these  mountains  without 
thinking  I  perceive  somewhat  analogous  to  growth 

*  Mr.  Courthope,  of  Danny. 


196  NATURAL    HISTORY 

in  their  gentle  swellings  and  smooth  fungus-like 
protuberances,  their  fluted  sides,  and  regular  hol- 
lows and  slopes,  that  carry  at  once  the  air  of  vege- 
tative dilatation  and  expansion  :  or  was  there  ever 
a  time  when  these  immense  masses  of  calcareous 
matter  were  thrown  into  fermentation  by  some  ad- 
ventitious moisture,  were  raised  and  leavened  into 
such  shapes  by  some  plastic  power,  and  so  made  to 
swell  and  heave  their  broad  backs  into  the  sky,  so 
much  above  the  less  animated  clay  of  the  wild 
below  ? 

By  what  I  can  guess  from  the  admeasurements 
of  the  hills  that  have  been  taken  round  my  house, 
I  should  suppose  that  these  hills  surmount  the  wild, 
on  an  average,  at  about  the  rate  of  five  hundred 
feet. 

One  thing  is  very  remarkable  as  to  the  sheep : 
from  the  westward  till  you  get  to  the  river  Adur, 
all  the  flocks  have  horns,  and  smooth  white  faces 
and  white  legs ;  and  a  hornless  sheep  is  rarely  to 
be  seen.  But  as  soon  as  you  pass  that  river  east- 
ward, and  mount  Beeding  Hill,  all  the  flocks  at  once 
become  hornless,  or,  as  they  call  them,  poll-sheep  ; 
and  have,  moreover,  black  faces,  with  a  white  tuft 
of  wool  on  their  foreheads,  and  speckled  and  spot- 
ted legs  ;  so  that  you  would  think  that  the  flocks  of 
Laban  were  pasturing  on  one  side  of  the  stream, 
and  the  variegated  breed  of  his  son-in-law  Jacob 
were  cantoned  along  on  the  other.  And  this  di- 
versity holds  good  respectively  on  each  side,  from 
the  valley  of  Bramber  and  Beeding  to  the  eastward, 
and  westward  all  the  whole  length  of  the  Downs. 
If  you  talk  with  the  shepherds  on  this  subject,  they 
tell  you  that  the  case  has  been  so  from  time  imme- 


OP   SELBORNE.  197 

morial,  and  smile  at  your  simplicity  if  you  ask 
them  whether  the  situation  of  these  two  different 
breeds  might  not  be  reversed.  (However,  an  in- 
telligent friend  of  mine  near  Chichester  is  deter- 
mined to  try  the  experiment ;  and  has  this  autumn, 
at  the  hazard  of  being  laughed  at,  introduced  a 
parcel  of  black-faced  hornless  rams  among  his 
horned  Western  ewes.)  The  black-faced  poll- 
sheep  have  the  shortest  legs  and  the  finest  wool. 

As  I  had  hardly  ever  before  travelled  these 
Downs  at  so  late  a  season  of  the  year  [December 
9th],  I  was  determined  to  keep  as  sharp  a  look-out 
as  possible  so  near  the  southern  coast  with  respect 
to  the  summer  short-winged  birds  of  passage.  We 
make  great  inquiries  concerning  the  withdrawing 
of  the  swallow  kind,  without  examining  enough 
into  the  causes  why  this  tribe  is  never  to  be  seen  in 
winter  ;  for,  entre  nous,  the  disappearing  of  the  lat- 
ter is  more  marvellous  than  that  of  the  former, 
and  much  more  unaccountable.  The  hirundines, 
if  they  please,  are  certainly  capable  of  migration, 
and  yet,  no  doubt,  are  often  found  in  a  torpid  state  ; 
but  redstarts,  nightingales,  whitethroats,  blackcaps, 
&c,  &c,  are  very  ill  provided  for  long  flights  ; 
have  never  been  once  found,  that  I  ever  heard  of, 
in  a  torpid  state ;  and  yet  can  never  be  supposed, 
in  such  troops,  from  year  to  year,  to  dodge  and 
elude  the  eyes  of  the  curious  and  inquisitive,  which 
from  day  to  day  discern  the  other  small  birds  that 
are  known  to  abide  our  winters.  But,  notwith- 
standing all  my  care,  I  saw  nothing  like  a  summer 
bird  of  passage ;  and,  what  is  more  strange,  not 
one  wheatear,  though  they  abound  so  in  the  au- 
tumn as  to  be  a  considerable  perquisite  to  the  shep- 

R2 


198  NATURAL  HISTORY 

herds  that  take  them  ;  and  though  many  are  to  bo 
seen  to  my  knowledge  all  the  winter  through  in 
many  parts  of  the  south  of  England.  The  most 
intelligent  shepherds  tell  me  that  some  few  of  these 
birds  appear  on  the  Downs  in  March,  and  then 
withdraw,  probably,  in  warrens  and  stone-quarries  : 
now  and  then  a  nest  is  ploughed  up  in  a  fallow  on 
the  Downs  under  a  furrow,  but  it  is  thought  a  rarity. 
At  the  time  of  wheat-harvest  they  begin  to  be  ta. 
ken  in  great  numbers ;  are  sent  for  sale  in  vast 
quantities  to  Brighthelmstone  and  Tunbridge  ;  and 
appear  at  the  tables  of  all  the  gentry  that  en- 
tertain with  any  degree  of  elegance.  About  Mi- 
chaelmas they  retire,  and  are  seen  no  more  till 
March.  Though  these  birds  are,  when  in  season,  in 
great  plenty  on  the  South  Downs  round  Lewes,  yet 
at  East  Bourn,  which  is  the  eastern  extremity  of 
those  downs,  they  abound  much  more.  One  thing  is 
very  remarkable,  that  though  in  the  height  of  the 
season  so  many  hundreds  of  dozens  are  taken,  yet 
they  never  are  seen  to  flock,  and  it  is  a  rare  thing 
to  see  more  than  three  or  four  at  a  time,  so  that 
there  must  be  a  perpetual  flitting  and  constant  pro- 
gressive succession.  It  does  not  appear  that  any 
wheatears  are  taken  to  the  westward  of  Hough- 
ton Bridge,  which  stands  on  the  River  Arun. 

I  did  not  fail  to  look  particularly  after  my  new 
migration  of  ringousels,  and  to  take  notice  whether 
they  continued  on  the  Downs  to  this  season  of  the 
year,  as  I  had  formerly  remarked  them  in  the 
month  of  October,  all  the  way  from  Chichester  to 
Lewes,  wherever  there  were  any  shrubs  and  covert ; 
but  not  one  bird  of  this  sort  came  within  my  obser- 
vation. I  only  saw  a  few  larks  and  whinchats, 
some  rooks,  and  several  kites  and  buzzards. 


OP   SELBORNE.  199 

About  Midsummer  a  flight  of  crossbills  comes 
to  the  pine-groves  about  this  house,  but  never  makes 
any  long  stay. 

The  old  tortoise  that  I  have  mentioned  in  a  for- 
mer letter  still  continues  in  this  garden  ;  it  retired 
under  ground  about  the  20th  of  November,  and 
came  out  again  for  one  day  on  the  30th  ;  it  lies  now 
buried  in  a  wet  swampy  border,  under  a  wall  facing 
to  the  south,  and  is  enveloped  at  present  in  mud 
and  mire ! 

Here  is  a  large  rookery  round  this  house,  the 
inhabitants  of  which  seem  to  get  their  livelihood 
very  easily,  for  they  spend  the  greatest  part  of  the 
day  on  their  nest-trees  when  the  weather  is  mild. 
These  Rooks  retire  every  evening  all  the  winter 


from  this  rookery,  where  they  only  call  by  the  way, 
as  they  are  going  to  roost  in  deep  woods :  at  the 
dawn  of  day  they  always  revisit  their  nest-trees, 
and  are  preceded  a  few  minutes  by  a  flight  of 
daws,  that  act,  as  it  were,  as  their  harbingers.* 

*  Rooks  are  continually  righting  and  pulling  each  other's  nests 
to  pieces :  these  proceedings  are  inconsistent  with  living  in 


200  NATURAL   HISTORY 


LETTER     XVIII. 


Selborne,  Jan.  29,  17?4. 

Dear  Sir, — The  house-swallow  or  chimney- 
swallow  is  undoubtedly  the  first  comer  of  all  the 
British  hirundines,  and  appears  in  general  on  or 
about  the  13th  of  April,  as  I  have  remarked  from 
many  years'  observation.  Not  but  that  now  and 
then  a  straggler  is  seen  much  earlier  ;  and,  in  par- 
ticular, when  I  was  a  boy,  I  observed  a  swallow 
for  a  whole  day  together  on  a  sunny  warm  Shrove 
Tuesday,  which  day  could  not  fall  out  later  than 
the  middle  of  March,  and  often  happened  early  in 
February. 

It  is  worth  remarking,  that  these  birds  are  seen 
first  about  lakes  and  millponds  ;  and  it  is  also  very 
particular,  that  if  these  early  visiters  happen  to 
find  frost  and  snow,  as  was  the  case  of  the  two 
dreadful  springs  of  1770  and  1771,  they  immedi- 
ately withdraw  for  a  time ;  a  circumstance,  this, 
much  more  in  favour  of  hiding  than  migration,  since 
it  is  much  more  probable  that  a  bird  should  retire 

such  close  community.  And  yet,  if  a  pair  offer  to  build  on  a 
single  tree,  the  nest  is  plundered  and  demolished  at  once. 
Some  rooks  roost  on  their  nest-trees.  The  twigs  which  the 
rooks  drop  in  building  supply  the  poor  with  brushwood  to  light 
their  fires.  Some  unhappy  pairs  are  not  permitted  to  finish  any 
nests  till  the  rest  have  completed  their  building.  As  soon  as 
they  get  a  few  sticks  together,  a  party  comes  and  demolishes 
the  whole.  As  soon  as  the  rooks  have  finished  their  nests,  and 
before  they  lay,  the  cocks  begin  to  feed  the  hens,  who  receive 
their  bounty  with  a  fondling,  tremulous  voice  and  fluttering 
wings,  and  all  the  little  blandishments  that  are  expressed  by  the 
young  while  in  a  helpless  state.  This  is  continued  through 
the  whole  season  of  hatching.— White's  Observations  on  Birds. 


OF    SELBORNE.  201 

to  its  hybernaculum  just  at  hand,  tnan  return  for  a 
week  or  two  only  to  warmer  latitudes. 

The  swallow,  though  called  the  chimney-swal- 
low,  by  no  means  builds  altogether  in  chimneys, 
but  often  within  barns  and  outhouses  against  the 
rafters  ;  and  so  she  did  in  Virgil's  time  : 

"Ante 
Garrula  quam.  tigrris  nidos  suspendat  hirundo." 

In  Sweden  she  builds  in  barns,  and  is  called  ladu 
swala,  the  barn-swallow.  Besides,  in  the  warmer 
parts  of  Europe  there  are  no  chimneys  to  houses, 
except  they  are  English  built :  in  these  countries 
she  constructs  her  nest  in  porches,  and  gateways, 
and  galleries,  and  open  halls. 

Here  and  there  a  bird  may  affect  some  odd,  pe- 
culiar place,  as  we  have  known  a  swallow  build 
down  the  shaft  of  an  old  well,  through  which  chalk 
had  been  formerly  drawn  up  for  the  purpose  of 
manure  ;  but,  in  general,  with  us  this  hirundo 
builds  in  chimneys,  and  loves  to  haunt  those  stacks 
where  there  is  a  constant  fire,  no  doubt  for  the  sake 
of  warmth.  Not  that  it  can  subsist  in  the  imme- 
diate shaft  where  there  is  a  fire ;  but  prefers  one 
adjoining  to  that  of  the  kitchen,  and  disregards  the 
perpetual  smoke  of  that  funnel,  as  I  have  often  ob- 
served with  some  degree  of  wonder. 

Five  or  six,  or  more  feet  down  the  chimney,  does 
this  little  bird  begin  to  form  her  nest  about  the 
middle  of  May,  which  consists,  like  that  of  the 
house-martin,  of  a  crust  or  shell  composed  of  dirt 
or  mud,  mixed  with  short  pieces  of  straw  to  render 
it  tough  and  permanent ;  with  this  difference,  that 
whereas  the  shell  of  the  martin  is  nearly  hemi- 


202  NATURAL   HISTORY 

spheric,  that  of  the  swallow  is  open  at  the  top,  and 
like  half  a  deep  dish :  this  nest  is  lined  with  fine 
grasses  and  feathers,  which  are  often  collected  as 
they  float  in  the  air. 

Wonderful  is  the  address  which  this  adroit  bird 
shows  all  day  long,  in  ascending  and  descending 
with  security  through  so  narrow  a  pass.  When 
hovering  over  the  mouth  of  the  funnel,  the  vibra- 
tions of  her  wings  acting  on  the  confined  air  occa- 
sion a  rumbling  like  thunder.  It  is  not  improbable 
that  the  dam  submits  to  this  inconvenient  situation 
so  low  in  the  shaft  in  order  to  secure  her  broods 
from  rapacious  birds,  and  particularly  from  owls, 
which  frequently  fall  down  chimneys,  perhaps  in 
attempting  to  get  at  these  nestlings. 

The  swallow  lays  from  four  to  six  white  eggs, 
dotted  with  red  specks,  and  brings  out  her  first 
brood  about  the  last  week  in  June  or  the  first  week 
in  July.  The  progressive  method  by  which  the 
young  are  introduced  into  life  is  very  amusing : 
first,  they  emerge  from  the  shaft  with  difficulty 
enough,  and  often  fall  down  into  the  rooms  below ; 
for  a  day  or  so  they  are  fed  on  the  chimney  top, 
and  then  are  conducted  to  the  dead,  leafless  bough 
of  some  tree,  where,  sitting  in  a  row,  they  are  at- 
tended with  great  assiduity,  and  may  then  be  call- 
ed perchers.  In  a  day  or  two  more  they  become 
fliers,  but  are  still  unable  to  take  their  own  food ; 
therefore  they  play  about  near  the  place  where  the 
dams  are  hawking  for  flies,  and,  when  a  mouthful 
is  collected,  at  a  certain  signal  given,  the  dam  and 
the  nestling  advance,  rising  towards  each  other, 
and  meeting  at  an  angle,  the  young  one  all  the 
while  uttering  such  a  little  quick  note  of  gratitude 


OF  SELBORNE.  203 

and  complacency,  that  a  person  must  have  paid 
very  little  regard  to  the  wonders  of  Nature  that 
has  not  often  remarked  this  feat. 

The  dam  betakes  herself  immediately  to  the 
business  of  a  second  brood  as  soon  as  she  is  disen- 
gaged from  her  first,  which  at  once  associates  with 
the  first  broods  of  house-martins,  and  with  them 
congregates,  clustering  on  sunny  roofs,  towers,  and 
trees.  This  hirundo  brings  out  her  second  brood 
towards  the  middle  and  end  of  August. 

All  the  summer  long  is  the  swallow  a  most  in- 
structive pattern  of  unwearied  industry  and  affec- 
tion ;  for  from  morning  to  night,  while  there  is  a 
family  to  be  supported,  she  spends  the  whole  day 
in  skimming  close  to  the  ground,  and  exerting  the 
most  sudden  turns  and  quick  evolutions.  Avenues, 
and  long  walks  under  hedges,  and  pasture-fields, 
and  mown  meadows  where  cattle  graze,  are  her 
delight,  especially  if  there  are  trees  interspersed, 
because  in  such  spots  insects  most  abound.  When 
a  fly  is  taken,  a  smart  snap  from  her  bill  is  heard, 
resembling  the  noise  at  the  shutting  of  a  watch- 
case  ;  but  the  motion  of  the  mandibles  is  too  quick 
for  the  eye. 

The  swallow,  probably  the  male  bird,  is  the  ex- 
cubitor  to  house-martins  and  other  little  birds,  an- 
nouncing the  approach  of  birds  of  prey  ;  for  as 
soon  as  a  hawk  appears,  with  a  shrill,  alarming  note, 
he  calls  all  the  swallows  and  martins  about  him, 
who  pursue  in  a  body,  and  buffet  and  strike  their 
enemy  till  they  have  driven  him  from  the  village, 
darting  down  from  above  on  his  back,  and  rising  in 
a  perpendicular  line  in  perfect  security.  This  bird 
also  will  sound  the  alarm,  and  strike  at  cats  when 


204  NATURAL    HISTORY 

they  climb  on  the  roofs  of  houses,  or  otherwise 
approach  the  nests.  Each  species  of  hirundo  drinks 
as  it  flies  along,  sipping  the  surface  of  the  water ; 
but  the  swallow  alone,  in  general,  washes  on  the 
wing,  by  dropping  into  a  pool  for  many  times  togeth- 
er :  in  very  hot  weather  house-martins  and  bank- 
martins  dip  and  wash  a  little. 

The  swallow  is  a  delicate  songster,  and  in  soft 
sunny  weather  sings  both  perching  and  flying,  on 
trees  in  a  kind  of  concert,  and  on  chimney  tops  ; 
is  also  a  bold  flier,  ranging  to  distant  downs  and 
commons  even  in  windy  weather,  which  the  other 
species  seem  most  to  dislike  ;  nay,  even  frequent- 
ing exposed  seaport  towns,  and  making  little  excur- 
sions over  the  salt  water.  Horsemen  on  wide 
downs  are  often  closely  attended  by  a  little  party 
of  swallows  for  miles  together,  which  plays  before 
and  behind  them,  sweeping  around,  and  collecting 
all  the  skulking  insects  that  are  roused  by  the 
trampling  of  the  horses'  feet.  When  the  wind 
blows  hard,  without  this  expedient,  they  are  often 
forced  to  settle  to  pick  up  their  lurking  prey. 

This  species  feeds  much  on  little  coleoptera,  as 
well  as  on  gnats  and  flies,  and  often  settles  on  dug 
ground  or  paths  for  gravels  to  grind  and  digest  its 
food.  Before  they  depart,  for  some  weeks,  they  to 
a  bird  forsake  houses  and  chimneys,  and  roost  in 
trees,  and  usually  withdraw  about  the  beginning  of 
October,  though  some  few  stragglers  may  appear 
on  at  times  till  the  first  week  in  November. 

Some  few  pairs  haunt  the  new  and  open  streets 
of  London  next  the  fields,  but  do  not  enter,  like  tho 
house-martin,  the  close  and  crowded  parts  of  the 
city. 


OF    SELBORNE.  205 

Both  male  and  female  are  distinguished  from 
their  congeners  by  the  length  and  forkedness  of 
their  tails.  They  are  undoubtedly  the  most  nimble 
of  all  the  species  ;  and,  when  they  pursue  one  ano- 
ther, they  then  go  beyond  their  usual  speed,  and 
exert  a  rapidity  almost  too  quick  for  the  eye  to 
follow. 

After  this  circumstantial  detail  of  the  life  and 
discerning  Gropyq  of  the  swallow,  I  shall  add  for 
your  farther  amusement  an  anecdote  or  two,  not 
much  in  favour  of  her  sagacity  : 

A  certain  swallow  built  for  two  years  together 
on  the  handles  of  a  pair  of  garden-shears  that  was 
stuck  up  against  the  boards  in  an  outhouse,  and 
therefore  must  have  her  nest  spoiled  whenever  that 
implement  was  wanted.  And,  what  is  stranger  still, 
another  bird  of  the  same  species  built  its  nest  on 
the  wings  and  body  of  an  owl,  that  happened  by 
accident  to  hang  dead  and  dry  from  the  rafter  of  a 
barn.  This  owl,  with  the  nest  on  its  wings  and 
with  eggs  in  the  nest,  was  brought  to  a  distinguish- 
ed naturalist  as  a  curiosity  worthy  the  most  elegant 
private  museum  in  Great  Britain.  The  owner, 
struck  with  the  oddity  of  the  sight,  furnished  the 
bringer  with  a  large  shell  or  conch,  desiring  him  to 
fix  it  just  where  the  owl  hung.  The  person  did  as 
he  was  ordered  ;  and  the  following  year  a  pair, 
probably  the  same  pair,  built  their  nest  in  the  conch, 
and  laid  their  eggs. 

The  owl  and  the  conch  make  a  strange,  grotesque 
appearance,  and  are  not  the  least  curious  specimens 
in  that  wonderful  collection  of  art  and  nature.* 

*  Sir  Ashton  Lever's  museum.  This  museum  has  since  been 
sold,  and  variously  distributed. 

s 


206  NATURAL   HISTORY 

Thus  is  instinct  in  animals,  taken  the  least  out  of 
its  way,  an  undistinguishing, .limited  faculty,  and 
blind  to  every  circumstance  that  does  not  immedi- 
ately respect  self-preservation,  or  lead  at  once  to 
the  support  of  their  species. 


LETTER     XIX. 

Selborne,  Feb.  14,  1774. 

Dear  Sir, — I  received  your  favour  of  the  8th 
[of  February],  and  am  pleased  to  find  that  you  read 
my  little  history  of  the  swallow  with  your  usual 
candour  ;  nor  was  I  the  less  pleased  to  find  that 
you  made  objections  where  you  saw  reason. 

As  to  the  quotations,  it  is  difficult  to  say  pre- 
cisely which  species  of  hirundo  Virgil  might  intend 
in  the  lines  in  question,  since  the  ancients  did  not 
attend  to  specific  differences  like  modern  natural- 
ists ;  yet  somewhat  may  be  gathered,  enough  to  in- 
cline me  to  suppose  that,  in  the  two  passages  quoted, 
the  poet  had  his  eye  on  the  swallow. 

In  the  first  place,  the  epithet  garrula  suits  the 
swallow  well,  who  is  a  great  songster,  and  not  the 
martin,  which  is  rather  a  mute  bird,  and  when  it 
sings  is  so  inward  as  scarce  to  be  heard.  Besides, 
if  lignum  in  that  place  signifies  a  rafter  rather  than 
a  beam,  as  it  seems  to  me  to  do,  then  I  think  it 
must  be  the  swallow  that  is  alluded  to,  and  not  the 
martin,  since  the  former  does  frequently  build  with- 
in the  roof  against  the  rafters,  while  the  latter  al- 
ways, as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  observe,  builds 
without  the  roof  against  eaves  and  cornices. 


OF    SELBORNE.  207 

As  to  the  simile,  too  much  stress  must  not  be 
laid  on  it ;  yet  the  epithet  nigra  speaks  plainly  in 
favour  of  the  swallow,  whose  back  and  wings  are 
very  black,  while  the  rump  of  the  martin  is  milk- 
white,  its  back  and  wings  blue,  and  all  its  under 
part  white  as  snow.  Nor  can  the  clumsy  motions 
(comparatively  clumsy)  of  the  martin  well  repre- 
sent the  sudden  and  artful  evolutions  and  quick 
turns  which  Juturna  gave  to  her  brother's  chariot, 
so  as  to  elude  the  eager  pursuit  of  the  enraged 
iEneas.  The  verb  sonat  also  seems  to  imply  a  bird 
that  is  somewhat  loquacious.* 

We  have  had  a  very  wet  autumn  and  winter,  so 

as  to  raise  the  springs  to  a  pitch  beyond  anything 

since  1764,  which  was  a  remarkable  year  for  floods 

and  high  waters.     The  land-springs,  which  we  call 

levants,  break  out  much  on  the  Downs  of  Sussex, 

Hampshire,  and  Wiltshire.     The  country  people 

say,  when  the  levants   rise,  corn  will  always  be 

dear  ;  meaning,  that  when  the  earth  is  so  glutted 

with  water  as  to  send  forth  springs  on  the  downs 

and  uplands,  that  the  corn-vales  must  be  drowned ; 

and  so  it  has  proved  for  these  ten  or  eleven  years 

past :  for  land-springs  have  never  obtained  more 

since  the  memory  of  man  than  during  that  period, 

nor  has  there  been  known  a  greater  scarcity  of  all 

sorts  of  grain,  considering  the  great  improvements 

of  modern  husbandry.     Such  a  run  of  wet  seasons 

a  century  or  two  ago  would,  I  am  persuaded,  have 

occasioned  a  famine.     Therefore  pamphlets  and 

*  "  Nigra  velut  magnas  domini  cum  divitis  aedes 
Pervolat,  et  pennis  alta  atria  lustrat  hirundo, 
Pabula  parva  legens,  nidisque  loquacibus  escas  : 
Et  nunc  porticibus  vacuis,  nunc  humida  circum 
Stagna  sonat." 


208  NATURAL   HISTORY 

newspaper  letters  that  talk  of  combinations  tend 
to  inflame  and  mislead,  since  we  must  not  expect 
plenty  till  Providence  sends  us  more  favourable 
seasons. 

The  wheat  of  last  year,  all  round  this  district, 
and  in  the  county  of  Rutland  and  elsewhere,  yields 
remarkably  bad  ;  and  our  wheat  on  the  ground,  by 
the  continual  late  sudden  vicissitudes  from  fierce 
frost  to  pouring  rains,  looks  poorly,  and  the  turnips 
rot  very  fast. 


LETTER     XX. 

Selborne,  Feb.  26,  1774. 

Dear  Sir, — The  sand-martin  or  bank-martin  is 
by  much  the  least  of  any  of  the  British  hirundines, 
and,  as  far  as  we  have  ever  seen,  the  smallest 
known  hirundo,  though  Brisson  asserts  that  there 
is  one  much  smaller,  and  that  is  the  hirundo  escu- 
lenta. 

But  it  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  it  is  scarce 
possible  for  any  observer  to  be  so  full  and  exact  as 
he  could  wish  in  reciting  the  circumstances  attend- 
ing the  life  and  conversation  of  this  little  bird, 
since  it  is  fera  naturd,  at  least  in  this  part  of  the 
kingdom,  disclaiming  all  domestic  attachments,  and 
haunting  wild  heaths  and  commons  where  there 
are  large  lakes  ;  while  the  other  species,  especially 
the  swallow  and  house-martin,  are  remarkably  gen- 
tle and  domesticated,  and  never  seem  to  think  them- 
selves safe  but  under  the  protection  of  man. 

Here  are  in  this  parish,  in  the  sandpits  and 


of  SELBORNE.  209 

banks  of  the  lakes  of  Wolmer  Forest,  several  col- 
onies of  these  birds,  and  yet  they  are  never  seen 
in  the  village,  nor  do  they  at  all  frequent  the  cot- 
tages that  are  scattered  about  in  that  wild  district. 
The  only  instance  I  ever  remember  where  this 
species  haunts  any  building,  is  at  the  town  of 
Bishop's  Waltham,  in  this  county,  where  many 
sand-martins  nestle  in  the  scaffold-holes  of  the 
back  wall  of  William  of  Wykeham's  stables  ;  but 
then  this  wall  stands  in  a  very  sequestered  and  re- 
tired enclosure,  and  faces  upon  a  large  and  beau- 
tiful lake.  And,  indeed,  this  species  seems  so  to 
delight  in  large  waters,  that  no  instance  occurs  of 
their  abounding  but  near  vast  pools  or  rivers  ;  and, 
in  particular,  it  has  been  remarked  that  they  swarm 
in  the  banks  of  the  Thames,  in  some  places  below 
London  Bridge. 

It  is  curious  to  observe  with  what  different  de- 
grees of  architectonic  skill  Providence  has  en- 
dowed birds  of  the  same  genus,  and  so  nearly  cor- 
respondent in  their  general  mode  of  life  ;  for,  while 
the  swallow  and  the  house-martin  discover  the 
greatest  address  in  raising  and  securely  fixing 
crusts  or  shells  of  loam  as  cunabula  for  their  young, 
the  bank-martin  terebrates  a  round  and  regular 
hole  in  the  sand  or  earth,  which  is  serpentine,  hori- 
zontal, and  about  two  feet  deep.  At  the  inner  end 
of  this  burrow  does  this  bird  deposite,  in  a  good 
degree  of  safety,  her  rude  nest,  consisting  of  fine 
grasses  and  feathers,  usually  goose  feathers,  very 
inartificially  laid  together. 

Perseverance  will  accomplish  anything,  though 
at  first  one  would  be  disinclined  to  believe  that 
this  weak  bird,  with  her  soft  and  tender  bill  and 
S2 


210  NATURAL   HISTORY 

claws,  should  ever  be  able  to  bore  the  stubborn 
sandbank  without  entirely  disabling  herself;  yet 
with  these  feeble  instruments  have  I  seen  a  pair  of 
them  make  great  despatch,  and  could  remark  how 
much  they  had  scooped  that  day  by  the  fresh  sand 
which  ran  down  the  bank,  and  was  of  a  different 
colour  from  that  which  lay  loose  and  bleached  in 
the  sun. 

In  what  space  of  time  these  little  artists  are  able 
to  mine  and  finish  these  cavities  I  have  never  been 
able  to  discover,  for  reasons  given  above ;  but  it 
would  be  a  matter  worthy  of  observation,  where  it 
falls  in  the  way  of  any  naturalist,  to  make  his  re- 
marks. This  I  have  often  taken  notice  of,  that 
several  holes  of  different  depths  are  left  unfinished 
at  the  end  of  summer.  To  imagine  that  these  be- 
ginnings were  intentionally  made,  in  order  to  be  in 
the  greater  forwardness  for  next  spring,  is  allow- 
ing, perhaps,  too  much  foresight  and  rerum  pruden- 
tia  to  a  simple  bird.  May  not  the  cause  of  these 
latebra  being  left  unfinished  arise  from  their  meet- 
ing in  those  places  with  strata  too  harsh,  hard,  and 
solid  for  their  purpose,  which  they  relinquish,  and 
go  to  a  fresh  spot  that  works  more  freely  1  Or  may 
they  not  in  other  places  fall  in  with  a  soil  as  much 
too  loose  and  mouldering,  liable  to  founder,  and 
threatening  to  overwhelm  them  and  their  labours? 

One  thing  is  remarkable,  that  after  some  years 
the  old  holes  are  forsaken  and  new  ones  bored, 
perhaps  because  the  old  habitations  grow  foul  and 
foetid  from  long  use,  or  because  they  may  so 
abound  with  fleas  as  to  become  untenantable. 
This  species  of  swallow,  moreover,  is  strangely 
annoyed  with  fleas ;  and  we  have  seen  fleas,  bed- 


OP    SELBORNE.  211 

fleas  (pulex  irritans)  swarming  at  the  mouths  of 
these  holes,  like  bees  on  the  stools  of  their  hives. 

The  following  circumstance  should  by  no  means 
be  omitted :  that  these  birds  do  not  make  use  of 
their  caverns  by  way  of  hybernacula,  as  might  be 
expected,  since  banks  so  perforated  have  been  dug 
out  with  care  in  the  winter,  when  nothing  was 
found  but  empty  nests. 

The  sand-martin  arrives  much  about  the  same 
time  with  the  swallow,  and  lays,  as  she  does,  from 
four  to  six  white  eggs.  But,  as  this  species  is 
cryptogame,  carrying  on  the  business  of  nidification, 
incubation,  and  the  support  of  its  young  in  the 
dark,  it  would  not  be  so  easy  to  ascertain  the  time 
of  hatching  were  it  not  for  the  coming  forth  of  the 
broods,  which  appear  much  about  the  time,  or, 
rather,  somewhat  earlier  than  those  of  the  swallow. 
The  nestlings  are  supported  in  common,  like  those 
of  their  congeners,  with  gnats  and  other  small  in- 
sects, and  sometimes  they  are  fed  with  libellulcz 
(dragon-flies)  almost  as  long  as  themselves.  In 
the  last  week  in  June  we  have  seen  a  row  of  these 
sitting  on  a  rail,  near  a  great  pool,  as  perchers, 
and  so  young  and  helpless  as  easily  to  be  taken  by 
hand  ;  but  whether  the  dams  ever  feed  them  on  the 
wing,  as  swallows  and  house-martins  do,  we  have 
never  yet  been  able  to  determine  ;  nor  do  we  know 
whether  they  pursue  and  attack  birds  of  prey. 

When  they  happen  to  nestle  near  hedges  and 
enclosures,  they  are  dispossessed  of  their  holes  by 
the  house-sparrow,  which  is,  on  the  same  account, 
a  fell  adversary  to  house-martins. 

These  hirundines  are  no  songsters,  but  rather 
mute,  making  only  a  little  harsh  noise  when  a  per- 


212  NATURAL    HISTORY 

son  approaches  their  nests.  They  seem  not  to  be 
of  a  sociable  turn,  never  with  us  congregating  with 
their  congeners  in  the  autumn.  Undoubtedly  they 
have  a  second  brood,  like  the  house-martin  and 
swallow,  and  withdraw  about  Michaelmas. 

Though  in  some  particular  districts  they  may 
happen  to  abound,  yet  on  the  whole,  in  the  south 
of  England  at  least,  is  this  much  the  rarest  spe- 
cies ;  lor  there  are  few  towns  or  large  villages  but 
what  abound  with  house-martins ;  few  churches, 
towers,  or  steeples  but  what  are  haunted  by  some 
swifts  ;  scarce  a  hamlet  or  single  cottage  chimney 
that  has  not  its  swallow ;  while  the  bank-martins, 
scattered  here  and  there,  live  a  sequestered  life 
among  some  abrupt  sandhills  and  in  the  banks  of 
some  few  rivers. 

These  birds  have  a  peculiar  manner  of  flying, 
flitting  about  with  odd  jerks  and  vacillations,  not 
unlike  the  motions  of  a  butterfly.  Doubtless  the 
flight  of  all  hirundines  is  influenced  by,  and  adapt- 
ed to,  the  peculiar  sort  of  insects  which  furnish 
their  food.  Hence  it  would  be  worth  inquiry  to 
examine  what  particular  genus  of  insects  affords 
the  principal  food  of  each  respective  species  of 
swallow. 

Notwithstanding  what  has  been  advanced  above, 
some  few  sand-martins,  I  see,  haunt  the  skirts  of 
London,  frequenting  the  dirty  pools  in  St.  George's 
Fields  and  about  Whitechapel.  The  question  is 
where  these  build,  since  there  are  no  banks  or 
bold  shores  in  that  neighbourhood.  Perhaps  they 
nestle  in  the  scaffold- holes  of  some  old  or  new  de- 
serted building.  They  dip  and  wash  as  they  fly 
sometimes,  like  the  house-martin  and  swallow. 


OF    SELBORNE.  213 

Sand-martins  differ  from  their  congeners  in  the 
diminutiveness  of  their  size  and  in  their  colour, 
which  is  what  is  usually  called  a  mouse  colour. 
Near  Valencia,  in  Spain,  they  are  taken,  says 
Willoughby,  and  sold  in  the  markets  for  the  table, 
and  are  called  by  the  country  people,  probably 
from  their  desultory,  jerking  manner  of  flight,  Pa- 
pillon  de  Montagna  (the  mountain  butterfly). 


LETTER     XXI. 


Selborne,  Sept.  28,  1774. 
Dear  Sir, — As  the  Swift  or  black  martin  is  the 
largest  of  the  British  hirundines,  so  it  is  undoubt- 
edly the  latest  comer.     For  I  remember  but  one 


instance  of  its  appearing  before  the  last  week  in 
April ;  and  in  some  of  our  late,  frosty,  harsh 
springs,  it  has  not  been  seen  till  the  beginning  of 
May.     This  species  usually  arrives  in  pairs. 

The  swift,  like  the  sand-martin,  is  very  defective 
in  architecture,  making  no  crust  or  shell  for  its 
nest,  but  forming  it  of  dry  grasses  and  feathers, 
very  rudely  and  inartificially  put  together.     With 


214  NATURAL   HISTORY 

all  my  attention  to  these  birds,  I  have  never  been 
able  once  to  discover  one  in  the  act  of  collecting 
or  carrying  in  materials  ;  so  that  I  have  suspected 
(since  their  nests  are  exactly  the  same)  that  they 
sometimes  usurp  upon  the  house-sparrows,  and  ex- 
pel them,  as  sparrows  do  the  house  and  sand  mar- 
tin; well  remembering  that  I  have  seen  them 
squabbling  together  at  the  entrance  of  their  holes, 
and  the  sparrows  up  in  arms,  and  much  discon- 
certed at  these  intruders  ;  and  yet  I  am  assured  by 
a  nice  observer  in  such  matters,  that  they  do  col- 
lect feathers  for  their  nests  in  Andalusia,  and  that 
he  has  shot  them  with  such  materials  in  their 
mouths. 

Swifts,  like  sand-martins,  carry  on  the  business 
of  nidification  quite  in  the  dark,  in  crannies  of  cas- 
tles, and  towers,  and  steeples,  and  upon  the  tops  of 
the  walls  of  churches  under  the  roof,  and  therefore 
cannot  be  so  narrowly  watched  as  those  species 
that  build  more  openly ;  but,  from  what  I  could 
ever  observe,  they  begin  nesting  about  the  middle 
of  May ;  and  I  have  remarked,  from  eggs  taken, 
that  they  have  set  hard  by  the  9th  of  June.  In 
general  they  haunt  tall  buildings,  churches,  and 
steeples,  and  build  only  in  such ;  yet  in  this  village 
some  pairs  frequent  the  lowest  and  meanest  cot- 
tages, and  educate  their  young  under  those  thatched 
roofs.  We  remember  but  one  instance  where  they 
placed  their  nests  out  of  buildings,  and  that  is  in. 
the  sides  of  a  deep  chalk-pit  near  the  town  of  Odi- 
ham,  in  this  county,  where  we  have  seen  many 
pairs  entering  the  crevices,  and  skimming  and 
squeaking  round  the  precipices. 

As  the  swift  eats,  drinks,  and  collects  materials 


OF    SELBORNE.  215 

for  its  nest  on  the  wing,  it  appears  to  live  more  in 
the  air  than  any  other  bird,  and  to  perform  all 
functions  there  save  those  of  sleeping  and  incuba- 
tion. 

This  hirundo  differs  widely  from  its  congeners 
in  laying  invariably  but  two  eggs  at  a  time,  which 
are  milk-white,  long,  and  peaked  at  the  small  end, 
whereas  the  other  species  lay  at  each  brood  from 
four  to  six.  It  is  a  most  alert  bird,  rising  very 
early,  and  retiring  to  roost  very  late,  and  is  on  the 
wing  in  the  height  of  summer  at  least  sixteen  hours. 
In  the  longest  days  it  does  not  withdraw  to  rest  till 
a  quarter  before  nine  in  the  evening,  being  the 
latest  of  all  day-birds.  Just  before  they  retire, 
whole  groups  of  them  assemble  high  in  the  air,  and 
squeak  and  shoot  about  with  wonderful  rapidity. 
But  this  bird  is  never  so  much  alive  as  in  sultry, 
thundery  weather,  when  it  expresses  great  alacrity, 
and  calls  forth  all  its  powers.  In  hot  mornings, 
several  getting  together  into  little  parties,  dash 
round  the  steeples  and  churches,  squeaking  as  they 
go  in  a  very  clamorous  manner  :  these,  by  nice  ob- 
servers, are  supposed  to  be  males  serenading  their 
sitting  hens ;  and  not  without  reason,  since  they 
seldom  squeak  till  they  come  close  to  the  walls  or 
eaves,  and  since  those  within  utter  at  the  same  time 
a  little  inward  note  of  complacency. 

When  the  hen  has  sat  hard  all  day,  she  rushes 
forth  just  as  it  is  almost  dark,  and  stretches  and 
relieves  her  weary  limbs,  and  snatches  a  scanty 
meal  for  a  few  minutes,  and  then  returns  to  her 
duty  of  incubation.  Swifts,  when  wantonly  and 
cruelly  shot  while  they  have  young,  discover  a  little 
lump  of  insects  in  their  mouths,  which  they  pouch 


216  NATURAL    HISTORY 

and  hold  under  their  tongue.  In  general  they  feed 
in  a  much  higher  district  than  the  other  species ; 
a  proof  that  gnats  and  other  insects  do  also  abound 
to  a  considerable  height  in  the  air  ;  they  also  range 
to  vast  distances,  since  locomotion  is  no  labour 
to  them,  who  are  endowed  with  such  wonderful 
powers  of  wing.  Their  powers  seem  to  be  in  pro- 
portion to  their  levers  ;  and  their  wings  are  longer 
in  proportion  than  those  of  almost  any  other  bird. 
When  they  mute,  or  ease  themselves  in  flight,  they 
raise  their  wings,  and  make  them  meet  over  their 
backs. 

At  some  certain  times  in  the  summer  I  had 
remarked  that  swifts  were  hawking  very  low  for 
hours  together  over  pools  and  streams,  and  could 
not  help  inquiring  into  the  object  of  their  pursuit, 
that  induced  them  to  descend  so  much  below  their 
usual  range.  After  some  trouble,  I  found  that  they 
were  taking  phrygance,  ephemera,  libellula  (cadew- 
flies,  Mayflies,  and  dragon-flies),  that  were  just 
emerged  out  of  their  aurelia  state.  I  then  no  longer 
wondered  that  they  should  be  so  willing  to  stoop 
for  a  prey  that  afforded  them  such  plentiful  and 
succulent  nourishment. 

They  bring  out  their  young  about  the  middle  or 
latter  end  of  July  ;  but  as  these  never  become 
perchers,  nor,  that  ever  I  could  discern,  are  fed 
on  the  wing  by  their  dams,  the  coming  forth  of  the 
young  is  not  so  notorious  as  in  the  other  species. 

On  the  30th  of  last  June  I  untiled  the  eaves  of  a 
house  where  many  pairs  build,  and  found  in  each 
nest  only  two  squab,  naked  pulli ;  on  the  8th  of 
July  I  repeated  the  same  inquiry,  and  found  they 
had  made  very  little  progress  towards  a  fledged 


OF    SELBORNE.  217 

state,  but  were  still  naked  and  helpless.  From 
whence  we  may  conclude,  that  birds  whose  way  of 
life  keeps  them  perpetually  on  the  wing,  would  not 
be  able  to  quit  their  nest  till  the  end  of  the  month. 
Swallows  and  martins,  that  have  numerous  families, 
are  continually  feeding  them  every  two  or  three 
minutes  ;  while  swifts,  that  have  but  two  young  to 
maintain,  are  much  at  their  leisure,  and  do  not  at- 
tend on  their  nests  for  hours  together. 

Sometimes  they  pursue  and  strike  at  hawks  that 
come  in  their  way,  but  not  with  that  vehemence 
and  fury  that  swallows  express  on  the  same  occa- 
sion. They  are  out  all  day  long  on  wet  days, 
feeding  about,  and  still  disregarding  rain,  from 
whence  two  things  may  be  gathered  :  first,  that 
many  insects  abide  high  in  the  air,  even  in  rain  ; 
and,  next,  that  the  feathers  of  these  birds  must  be 
well  preened  to  resist  so  much  wet.  Windy,  and 
particularly  windy  weather  with  heavy  showers, 
they  dislike,  and  on  such  days  withdraw  and  are 
scarce  ever  seen. 

There  is  a  circumstance  respecting  the  colour 
of  swifts  which  seems  not  to  be  unworthy  our 
attention.  When  they  arrive  in  the  spring  they 
are  all  over  of  a  glossy,  dark  soot  colour  except 
their  chins,  which  are  white  ;  but,  by  being  all 
day  long  in  the  sun  and  air,  they  become  quite 
weather-beaten  and  bleached  before  they  depart, 
and  yet  they  return  glossy  again  in  the  spring. 
Now,  if  they  pursue  the  sun  into  lower  latitudes, 
as  some  suppose,  in  order  to  enjoy  a  perpetual 
summer,  why  do  they  not  return  bleached  ?  Do 
they  not  rather,  perhaps,  retire  to  rest  for  a  season, 
and  at  that  juncture  moult  and  change  their  feath- 

T 


218  NATURAL    HISTORY 

ers,  since  all  other  birds  are  known  to  moult  soon 
after  the  season  of  laying  their  eggs. 

Swifts  are  very  anomalous  in  many  particulars, 
dissenting  from  all  their  congeners  not  only  in  the 
number  of  their  young,  but  in  having  but  one  brood 
in  a  summer,  whereas  all  the  other  British  hirun- 
dines  have  invariably  two.  It  is  past  all  doubt  that 
swifts  can  have  but  one,  since  they  withdraw  in  a 
short  time  after  the  flight  of  their  young,  and  some 
time  before  their  congeners  bring  out  their  second 
broods.  We  may  here  remark,  that  as  swifts  have 
but  one  brood  in  a  summer,  and  only  two  at  a 
time,  and  the  other  hirundines  two,  the  latter,  who 
lay  from  four  to  six  eggs,  increase  at  an  average 
five  times  as  fast  as  the  former. 

But  in  nothing  are  swifts  more  singular  than  in 
their  early  retreat.     They  retire,  as  to  the  main 
body  of  them,  by  the  10th  of  August,  and  some- 
times a  few  days  sooner ;  and  every  straggler  in- 
variably withdraws  by  the  20th  ;  while  their  con- 
geners, all  of  them,  stay  till  the  beginning  of  Octo- 
ber, many  of  them  all  through  that  month,  and 
some  occasionally  to  the  beginning  of  November. 
This  early  retreat  is  mysterious  and  wonderful, 
since  that  time  is  often  the  sweetest  season  in  the 
year.     But,  what  is  more  extraordinary,  they  begin 
to  retire  still  earlier  in  the  more  southerly  parts  of 
Andalusia,  where  they  can  be  nowise  influenced  by 
any  defect  of  heat,  or,  as  one  might  suppose,  de- 
fect of  food.     Are  they  regulated  in  their  motions 
with  us  by  a  failure  of  food,  or  by  a  propensity  to 
moulting,  or  by  a  disposition  to  rest  after  so  rapid 
a  life,  or  by  what  ?    This  is  one  of  those  incidents 
in  natural  history  that  not  only  baffles  our  re- 
searches, but  almost  eludes  our  guesses ! 


OF    SELBORNE.  219 

These  hirundines  never  perch  on  trees  or  roofs, 
and  so  never  congregate  with  their  congeners. 
They  are  fearless  while  haunting  their  nesting- 
places,  and  are  not  to  be  scared  with  a  gun,  and 
are  often  beaten  down  with  poles  and  cudgels  as 
they  stoop  to  go  under  the  eaves.  Swifts  are  much 
infested  with  those  pests  to  the  genus,  called  hippo- 
bosccB  hirundines ',  and  often  wriggle  and  scratch 
themselves  in  their  flight  to  get  rid  of  that  clinging 
annoyance. 

Swifts  are  no  songsters,  and  have  only  one  harsh, 
screaming  note  ;  yet  there  are  ears  to  which  it  is 
not  displeasing,  from  an  agreeable  association  of 
ideas,  since  that  note  never  occurs  but  in  the  most 
lovely  summer  weather. 

They  never  settle  on  the  ground  but  through  ac- 
cident, and  when  down  can  hardly  rise,  on  account 
of  the  shortness  of  their  legs  and  the  length  of 
their  wings  ;  neither  can  they  walk,  but  only  crawl ; 
but  they  have  a  strong  grasp  with  their  feet,  by 
which  they  cling  to  walls.  Their  bodies  being  flat, 
they  can  enter  a  very  narrow  crevice ;  and  where 
they  cannot  pass  on  their  bellies,  they  will  turn  up 
edgewise. 

The  particular  formation  of  the  foot  discrimi. 
nates  the  swift  from  all  the  British  hirundines,  and, 
indeed,  from  all  other  known  birds,  the  hirundo 
melba,  or  great  white-bellied  swift  of  Gibraltar  ex. 
cepted  ;  for  it  is  so  disposed  as  to  carry  "  omnes 
quatuor  digitos  anticos"  all  its  four  toes  forward  ; 
besides,  the  least  toe,  which  should  be  the  back  toe, 
consists  of  one  bone  alone,  and  the  other  three  only 
of  two  apiece  :  a  construction  most  rare  and  pecu- 
liar, but  nicely  adapted  to  the  purposes  in  which 


220  NATURAL   HISTORY 

their  feet  are  employed.  This,  and  some  peculi- 
arities attending  the  nostrils  and  under  mandible, 
have  induced  a  discerning  naturalist*  to  suppose 
that  this  species  might  constitute  a  genus  per  se. 

In  London,  a  party  of  swifts  frequents  the  Tow. 
er,  playing  and  feeding  over  the  river  just  below 
the  Bridge  ;  others  haunt  some  of  the  churches  of 
the  Borough  next  the  fields,  but  do  not  venture,  like 
the  house-martin,  into  the  close,  crowded  part  of 
the  town. 

The  Swedes  have  bestowed  a  very  pertinent 
name  on  this  swallow,  calling  it  ring-swala,  from 
the  perpetual  rings  or  circles  that  it  takes  round 
the  scene  of  its  nidification. 

Swifts  feed  on  coleoptera,  or  small  beetles  with 
hard  cases  over  their  wings,  as  well  as  on  the  softer 
insects ;  but  it  does  not  appear  how  they  can  pro- 
cure gravel  to  grind  their  food,  as  swallows  do, 
since  they  never  settle  on  the  ground.  Young 
ones,  overrun  with  hippoboscce,  are  sometimes  found, 
under  their  nests,  fallen  to  the  ground,  the  number 
of  vermin  rendering  their  abode  insupportable  any 
longer.  They  frequent  in  this  village  several  ab- 
ject cottages ;  yet  a  succession  still  haunts  the 
same  unlikely  roofs :  a  good  proof  this  that  the 
same  birds  return  to  the  same  spots.  As  they  must 
stoop  very  low  to  get  up  under  these  humble  eaves, 
cats  lie  in  wait,  and  sometimes  catch  them  on  the 
wing. 

On  the  fifth  of  July,  1775,  I  again  untiled  part 

of  a  roof  over  the  nest  of  a  swift.     The  dam  sat 

in  the  nest ;  but  so  strongly  was  she  affected  by 

natural  aropyr]  for  her  brood,  which  she  supposed 

*  John  Antony  Scopoli,  of  Carniola,  M.D. 


OF    SELBORNE.  221 

to  be  in  danger,  that,  regardless  of  her  own  safety, 
she  would  not  stir,  but  lay  sullenly  by  them,  per- 
mitting herself  to  be  taken  in  hand.  The  squab 
young  we  brought  down  and  placed  on  the  grass- 
plot,  where  they  tumbled  about,  and  were  as  help- 
less as  a  newborn  child.  While  we  contemplated 
their  naked  bodies,  their  unwieldy,  disproportioned 
abdomina,  and  their  heads  too  heavy  for  their  necks 
to  support,  we  could  not  but  wonder  when  we  re- 
flected that  these  shiftless  beings,  in  a  little  more 
than  a  fortnight,  would  be  able  to  dash  through  the 
air  almost  with  the  inconceivable  swiftness  of  a 
meteor,  and  perhaps,  in  their  emigration,  must  trav- 
erse vast  continents  and  oceans  as  distant  as  the 
equator.  So  soon  does  Nature  advance  small  birds 
to  their  rjXiKla,  or  state  of  perfection,  while  the  pro- 
gressive growth  of  men  and  large  quadrupeds  is 
slow  and  tedious ! 


LETTER     XXII. 

Selborne,  Sept.,  1774. 

Dear  Sir, — By  means  of  a  straight  cottage  chim- 
ney, I  had  an  opportunity  this  summer  of  remark- 
ing at  my  leisure  how  swallows  ascend  and  descend 
through  the  shaft ;  but  my  pleasure  in  contempla- 
ting the  address  with  which  this  feat  was  performed 
to  a  considerable  depth  in  the  chimney  was  some- 
what interrupted  by  apprehensions  lest  my  eyes 
might  undergo  the  same  fate  with  those  of  Tobit.* 

Perhaps  it  may  be  some  amusement  to  you  to 

*  Tobit,  ii.,  10. 
T2 


222  NATURAL   HISTORY 

hear  at  wnat  times  the  different  species  of  hirun. 
dines  arrived  this  spring  in  three  very  distant  coun- 
ties of  this  kingdom.  With  us  the  swallow  was 
seen  first  on  April  the  4th ;  the  swift  on  April  the 
24th;  the  black  martin  on  April  the  12th;  and 
the  house-martin  not  till  April  the  30th.  At 
South  Zele,  Devonshire,  swallows  did  not  arrive 
till  April  the  25th ;  swifts,  in  plenty,  on  May  the 
1st ;  and  house-martins  not  till  the  middle  of  May. 
At  Blackburn,  in  Lancashire,  swifts  were  seen 
April  the  28th  ;  swallows,  April  the  29th ;  house- 
martins,  May  the  1st.  Do  these  different  dates,  in 
such  distant  districts,  prove  anything  for  or  against 
migration  ? 

A  farmer  near  Weyhill  fallows  his  land  with 
two  teams  of  asses,  one  of  which  works  till  noon, 
and  the  other  in  the  afternoon.  When  these  ani- 
mals have  done  their  work,  they  are  penned  all 
night,  like  sheep,  on  the  fallow.  In  the  winter 
they  are  confined  and  foddered  in  a  yard,  and  make 
plenty  of  dung. 

Linnaeus  says  that  hawks  "  paciscuntur  inducias 
cum  avibus,  quamdiu  cuculus  cuculat ;"  but  it  ap- 
pears to  me  that  during  that  period  many  little 
birds  are  taken  and  destroyed  by  birds  of  prey,  as 
may  be  seen  by  their  feathers  left  in  lanes  and 
under  hedges. 

The  Missel-Thrush  is,  while  sitting,  fierce  and 
pugnacious,  driving  such  birds  as  approach  its  nest, 
with  great  fury,  to  a  distance.  The  Welsh  call  it 
pen  y  llwyn,  the  head  or  master  of  the  coppice. 
He  suffers  no  magpie,  jay,  or  blackbird  to  enter  the 
garden  where  he  haunts,  and  is,  for  the  time,  a 
good  guard  to  the  new-sown  legumens.     In  general 


OF    SELBORNE.  223 

he  is  very  successful  in  the  defence  of  his  family ; 
but  once  I  observed  in  my  garden  that  several  mag- 
pies came  determined  to  storm  the  nest  of  a  missel- 
thrush  ;  the  dams  defended  their  mansion  with  great 
vigour,  and  fought  resolutely  pro  aris  etfocis  ;  but 
numbers  at  last  prevailed  ;  they  tore  the  nest  to 
pieces,  and  swallowed  the  young  alive.* 


In  the  season  of  nidification  the  wildest   birds 

*  Thrushes,  during  loner  droughts,  are  of  great  service  in  hunt- 
ing out  shell-snails,  which  they  pull  in  pieces  for  their  young, 
and  are  thereby  very  serviceable  in  gardens.  Missel-thrushes  do 
not  destroy  the  fruit  in  gardens  like  the  other  species  of  thrushes 
(turdi),  but  feed  on  the  berries  of  mistletoe,  and  in  the  spring  on 
ivy-berries,  which  then  begin  to  ripen.  In  the  summer,  when 
their  young  become  fiedsred,  they  leave  neighbourhoods,  and  re- 
tire to  sheepwalks  and  wild  commons. 

The  magpies,  when  they  have  young,  destroy  the  broods  of 
missel-thrushes,  though  the  dams  are  fierce  birds,  and  fight 
boldly  in  defence  of  their  nests.  It  is  probably  to  avoid  such 
insults  that  this  species  of  thrush,  though  wild  at  other  times, 
delights  to  build  near  houses,  and  in  frequented  walks  and  gar- 
dens.—White's  Observations  on  Birds. 


224  NATURAL   HISTORY 

are  comparatively  tame.  Thus  the  ring-dove  con- 
structs her  nest  in  my  fields,  though  they  are  con- 
tinually frequented  ;  and  the  missel-thrush,  though 
most  shy  and  wild  in  the  autumn  and  winter,  builds 
in  my  garden  close  to  a  walk  where  people  are 
passing  all  day  long. 

Wall-fruit  abounds  with  me  this  year ;  but  my 
grapes,  that  used  to  be  forward  and  good,  are  at 
present  backward  beyond  all  precedent :  and  this 
is  not  the  worst  of  the  story ;  for  the  same  ungenial 
weather,  the  same  black,  cold  solstice,  has  injured 
the  more  necessary  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  dis- 
coloured and  blighted  our  wheat.  The  crop  of 
hops  promises  to  be  very  large. 

Frequent  returns  of  deafness  incommode  me 
sadly,  and  half  disqualify  me  for  a  naturalist ;  for, 
when  those  fits  are  upon  me,  I  lose  all  the  pleasing 
notice  and  little  intimations  arising  from  rural 
sounds,  and  May  is  to  me  as  silent  and  mute,  with 
respect  to  the  notes  of  birds,  &c,  as  August.  My 
eyesight  is,  thank  God,  quick  and  good,  but  with 
respect  to  the  other  sense  I  am  at  times  disabled, 
"  And  Wisdom  at  one  entrance  quite  shut  out." 


LETTER    XXIII. 

Selbome,  June  8,  1775. 
Dear  Sir, — On  September  the  21st,  1741,  be- 
ing then  on  a  visit,  and  intent  on  field  diversions,  I 
rose  before  daybreak :  when  I  came  into  the  en- 
closures, 1  found  the  stubbles  and  clover  grounds 
matted  all  over  with  a  thick  coat  of  cobweb,  in  the 


OF   SELBORNE.  225 

meshes  of  which  a  copious  and  heavy  dew  hung  so 
plentifully,  that  the  whole  face  of  the  country  seem- 
ed, as  it  were,  covered  with  two  or  three  setting- 
nets  drawn  one  over  another.  When  the  dogs  at- 
tempted to  hunt,  their  eyes  were  so  blinded  and 
hoodwinked  that  they  could  not  proceed,  but  were 
obliged  to  lie  down  and  scrape  the  encumbrances 
from  their  faces  with  their  fore  feet ;  so  that,  find- 
ing my  sport  interrupted,  I  returned  home,  musing 
in  my  mind  on  the  oddness  of  the  occurrence. 

As  the  morning  advanced,  the  sun  became  bright 
and  warm,  and  the  day  turned  out  one  of  those 
most  lovely  ones  which  no  season  but  the  autumn 
produces :  cloudless,  calm,  serene,  and  worthy  of 
the  south  of  France  itself. 

About  nine,  an  appearance  very  unusual  began 
to  demand  our  attention :  a  shower  of  cobwebs 
falling  from  very  elevated  regions,  and  continuing, 
without  any  interruption,  till  the  close  of  the  day. 

These  webs  were  not  single  filmy  threads,  float- 
ing in  the  air  in  all  directions,  but  perfect  flakes  or 
rags,  some  near  an  inch  broad,  and  five  or  six  long, 
which  fell  with  a  degree  of  velocity  that  showed 
they  were  considerably  heavier  than  the  atmo- 
sphere. 

On  every  side,  as  the  observer  turned  his  eyes, 
he  might  behold  a  continual  succession  of  fresh 
flakes  falling  into  his  sight,  and  twinkling  like  stars 
as  they  turned  their  sides  towards  the  sun. 

How  far  this  wonderful  shower  extended  would 
be  difficult  to  say ;  but  we  know  that  it  reached 
Bradley,  Selborne,  and  Alresford,  three  places 
which  lie  in  a  sort  of  a  triangle,  the  shortest  of 
whose  sides  is  about  eight  miles  in  extent. 


226  NATURAL    HISTORY 

At  the  second  of  those  places  there  was  a  gen- 
tleman (for  whose  veracity  and  intelligent  turn  we 
have  the  greatest  veneration)  who  observed  it  the 
moment  he  got  abroad  ;  but  concluded  that,  as 
soon  as  he  came  upon  the  hill  above  his  house, 
where  he  took  his  morning  rides,  he  should  be 
higher  than  this  meteor,  which  he  imagined  might 
have  been  blown,  like  thistle-down,  from  the  com- 
mon above  ;  but,  to  his  great  astonishment,  when 
he  rode  to  the  most  elevated  part  of  the  Down, 
three  hundred  feet  above  his  fields,  he  found  the 
webs  in  appearance  still  as  much  above  him  as 
before  ;  still  descending  into  sight  in  a  constant 
succession,  and  twinkling  in  the  sun  so  as  to  draw 
the  attention  of  the  most  incurious. 

Neither  before  nor  after  was  any  such  fall  ob- 
served ;  but  on  this  day  the  flakes  hung  in  trees 
and  hedges  so  thick,  that  a  diligent  person  sent  out 
might  have  gathered  baskets  full. 

The  remark  that  I  shall  make  on  these  cobweb- 
like appearances,  called  gossamer,  is,  that,  strange 
and  superstitious  as  the  notions  about  them  were 
formerly,  nobody  in  these  days  doubts  but  that  they 
are  the  real  production  of  small  spiders,  which 
swarm  in  the  fields  in  fine  weather  in  autumn,  and 
have  a  power  of  shooting  out  webs  from  their  tails, 
so  as  to  render  themselves  buoyant  and  lighter 
than  air.  But  why  these  apterous  insects  should 
that  day  take  such  a  wonderful  aerial  excursion, 
and  why  their  webs  should  at  once  become  so 
gross  and  material  as  to  be  considerably  more 
weighty  than  air,  and  to  descend  with  precipitation, 
is  a  matter  beyond  my  skill.  If  I  might  be  allowed 
to  hazard  a  supposition,  I  should  imagine  that  those 


OF   SELBORNE.  227 

filmy  threads,  when  first  shot,  might  be  entangled 
in  the  rising  dew,  and  so  drawn  up,  spiders  and  all, 
by  a  brisk  evaporation,  into  the  regions  where 
clouds  are  formed  ;  and  if  the  spiders  have  a  pow- 
er of  coiling  and  thickening  their  webs  in  the  air, 
as  Dr.  Lister  says  they  have  [see  his  Letters  to 
Mr.  Ray],  then,  when  they  were  become  heavier 
than  the  air,  they  must  fall. 

Every  day  in  fine  weather,  in  autumn  chiefly,  do 
I  see  those  spiders  shooting  out  their  webs  and 
mounting  aloft :  they  will  go  off  from  your  finger 
if  you  will  take  them  into  your  hand.  Last  sum- 
mer one  alighted  on  my  book  as  I  was  reading  in 
the  parlour,  and,  running  to  the  top  of  the  page, 
and  shooting  out  a  web,  took  its  departure  from 
thence.  But  what  I  most  wondered  at  was,  that  it 
went  off*  with  considerable  velocity  in  a  place 
where  no  air  was  stirring ;  and  I  am  sure  that  I 
did  not  assist  it  with  my  breath.  So  that  these 
little  crawlers  seem  to  have,  while  mounting,  some 
locomotive  power  without  the  use  of  wings,  and  to 
move  in  the  air  faster  than  the  air  itself. 


LETTER    XXIV. 

Selborne,  Aug.  15,  1775. 

Dear  Sir, — There  is  a  wonderful  spirit  of  soci- 
ality  in  the  brute  creation  ;  the  congregating  of 
gregarious  birds  in  the  winter  is  a  remarkable  in- 
stance. 

Many  horses,  though  quiet  with  company,  will 
not  stay  one  minute  in  a  field  by  themselves  :  the 


228  NATURAL   HISTORY 

strongest  fences  cannot  restrain  them.  My  neigh- 
bour's horse  will  not  only  not  stay  by  himself 
abroad,  but  he  will  not  bear  to  be  left  alone  in  a 
strange  stable  without  discovering  the  utmost  impa- 
tience, and  endeavouring  to  break  the  rack  and 
manger  with  his  fore  feet.  He  has  been  known  to 
leap  out  at  a  stable  window  through  which  dung 
was  thrown  after  company,  and  yet  in  other  re- 
spects is  remarkably  quiet.  Oxen  and  cows  will 
not  fatten  by  themselves,  but  will  neglect  the  finest 
pasture  that  is  not  recommended  by  society.  It 
would  be  needless  to  instance  in  sheep,  which  con- 
stantly flock  together. 

But  this  propensity  seems  not  to  be  confined  to 
animals  of  the  same  species ;  for  we  know  a  doe, 
still  alive,  that  was  brought  up  from  a  little  fawn 
with  a  dairy  of  cows  ;  with  them  it  goes  afield, 
and  with  them  it  returns  to  the  yard.  The  dogs 
of  the  house  take  no  notice  of  this  deer,  being  used 
to  her ;  but,  if  strange  dogs  come  by,  a  chase  en- 
sues ;  while  the  master  smiles  to  see  his  favourite 
securely  leading  her  pursuers  over  hedge,  or  gate, 
or  stile,  till  she  returns  to  the  cows,  who,  with  fierce 
lowings  and  menacing  horns,  drive  the  assailants 
quite  out  of  the  pasture. 

Even  great  disparity  of  kind  and  size  does  not 
always  prevent  social  advances  and  mutual  fellow- 
ship. For  a  very  intelligent  and  observant  person 
has  assured  me  that,  in  the  former  part  of  his  life 
keeping  but  one  horse,  he  happened  also  on  a  time 
to  have  but  one  solitary  hen.  These  two  incon- 
gruous animals  spent  much  of  their  time  together 
in  a  lonely  orchard,  where  they  saw  no  creature 
but  each  other.     By  degrees,  an  apparent  regard 


OF    SELBORNE.  229 

began  to  take  place  between  these  two  sequestered 
individuals.  The  fowl  would  approach  the  quad- 
ruped with  notes  of  complacency,  rubbing  herself 
gently  against  his  legs,  while  the  horse  would  look 
down  with  satisfaction,  and  move  with  the  greatest 
caution  and  circumspection,  lest  he  should  trample 
on  his  diminutive  companion.  Thus,  by  mutual 
good  offices,  each  seemed  to  console  the  vacant 
hours  of  the  other ;  so  that  Milton,  when  he  puts 
the  following  sentiment  in  the  mouth  of  Adam, 
seems  to  be  somewhat  mistaken  : 

"  Much  less  can  bird  with  beast,  or  fish  with  fowl, 
So  well  converse,  nor  with  the  ox  the  ape." 


LETTER    XXV. 

Selbome,  Oct.  2, 1775. 
Dear  Sir, — We  have  two  gangs  or  hordes  of 
gipsies  which  infest  the  south  and  west  of  England, 
and  come  round  in  their  circuit  two  or  three  times 
in  the  year.  One  of  these  tribes  calls  itself  by  the 
noble  name  of  Stanley,  of  which  I  have  nothing 
particular  to  say ;  but  the  other  is  distinguished  by 
an  appellative  somewhat  remarkable.  As  far  as 
their  harsh  gibberish  can  be  understood,  they  seem 
to  say  that  the  name  of  their  clan  is  Curleople  : 
now  the  termination  of  this  word  is  apparently 
Grecian  ;  and  as  Mezeray  and  the  gravest  histo- 
rians all  agree  that  these  vagrants  did  certainly 
migrate  from  Egypt  and  the  East  two  or  three  cen- 
turies ago,  and  so  spread  by  degrees  over  Europe, 
may  not  this  family  name,  a  little  corrupted,  be  the 

U 


230  NATURAL    HISTORY 

very  name  they  brought  with  them  from  the  Le- 
vant 1  It  would  be  matter  of  some  curiosity,  could 
one  meet  with  an  intelligent  person  among  them, 
to  inquire  whether,  in  their  jargon,  they  still  retain 
any  Greek  words  :  the  Greek  radicals  will  appear 
in  hand,  foot,  head,  water,  earth,  &c.  It  is  possi- 
ble that,  amid  their  cant  and  corrupted  dialect, 
many  mutilated  remains  of  their  native  language 
might  still  be  discovered. 

With  regard  to  those  peculiar  people,  the  gipsies, 
one  thing  is  very  remarkable,  especially  as  they 
came  from  warmer  climates  ;  and  that  is,  that  while 
other  beggars  lodge  in  barns,  stables,  and  cow- 
houses, these  sturdy  savages  seem  to  pride  them- 
selves in  braving  the  severities  of  winter,  and  in 
living  sub  dio  the  whole  year  round.  Last  Septem- 
ber was  as  wet  a  month  as  ever  was  known  ;  and 
yet,  during  those  deluges,  did  a  young  gipsy  girl 
lie  in  the  midst  of  one  of  our  hop-gardens,  on  the 
cold  ground,  with  nothing  over  her  but.  a  piece  of  a 
blanket  extended  on  a  few  hazel  rods,  bent  hoop 
fashion  and  stuck  into  the  earth  at.  each  end,  in  cir- 
cumstances too  trying  for  a  cow  in  the  same  con- 
dition :  yet  within  this  garden  there  was  a  large 
hop-kiln,  into  the  chambers  of  which  she  might 
have  retired  had  she  thought  shelter  an  object  wor- 
thy her  attention. 

Europe  itself,  it  seems,  cannot  set  bounds  to  the 
rovings  of  these  vagabonds  ;  for  Mr.  Bell,  in  his 
return  from  Peking,  met  a  gang  of  these  people  on 
the  confines  of  Tartary,  who  were  endeavouring  to 
penetrate  those  deserts  and  try  their  fortune  in 
China.* 

*  See  Bell's  Travels  in  China. 


OF    SELBORNE.  231 

Gipsies  are  called  in  French  Bohemiens ;  in  Ital- 
ian and  modern  Greek,  Zingani, 


LETTER    XXVI. 

Selborne,  Nov.  1, 1775. 
Dear  Sir, — 

"  Hie— taedae  pingues,  hie  plurimus  ignis 
Semper,  et  assidua  postes  fuligine  nigri." 

I  shall  make  no  apology  for  troubling  you  with 
the  detail  of  a  very  simple  piece  of  domestic  econ- 
omy, being  satisfied  that  you  think  nothing  be- 
neath your  attention  that  tends  to  utility :  the  mat- 
ter alluded  to  is  the  use  of  rushes  instead  of  can- 
dles, which  I  am  well  aware  prevails  in  many  dis- 
tricts besides  this  ;  but  as  I  know  there  are  coun- 
tries also  where  it  does  not  obtain,  and  as  I  have 
considered  the  subject  with  some  degree  of  ex- 
actness, I  shall  proceed  in  my  humble  story,  and 
leave  you  to  judge  of  the  expediency. 

The  proper  species  of  rush  for  this  purpose  seems 
to  be  the  juncus  conglomeratus,  or  common  soft 
rush,  which  is  to  be  found  in  most  moist  pastures, 
by  the  sides  of  streams,  and  under  hedges.  These 
rushes  are  in  best  condition  in  the  height  of  sum- 
mer, but  may  be  gathered,  so  as  to  serve  the  pur- 
pose well,  quite  on  to  autumn.  It  would  be  need- 
less to  add  that  the  largest  and  longest  are  best. 
Decayed  labourers,  women,  and  children  make  it 
their  business  to  procure  and  prepare  them.  As 
soon  as  they  are  cut  they  must  be  flung  into  water 
and  kept  there,  for  otherwise  they  will  dry  and 


232  NATURAL   HISTORY 

shrink,  and  the  peel  will  not  run.  At  first  a  person 
would  find  it  no  easy  matter  to  divest  a  rush  of  its 
peel  or  rind,  so  as  to  leave  one  regular,  narrow, 
even  rib  from  top  to  bottom  that  may  support  the 
pith  ;  but  this,  like  other  feats,  soon  becomes  famil- 
iar even  to  children  ;  and  we  have  seen  an  old 
woman  stone  blind  performing  this  business  with 
great  despatch,  and  seldom  failing  to  strip  them 
with  the  nicest  regularity.  When  these  junci  are 
thus  far  prepared,  they  must  lie  out  on  the  grass  to 
be  bleached,  and  take  the  dew  for  some  nights,  and 
afterward  be  dried  in  the  sun. 

Some  address  is  required  in  dipping  these  rushes 
in  the  scalding  fat  or  grease  ;  but  this  knack  also 
is  to  be  attained  by  practice.  The  careful  wife  of 
an  industrious  Hampshire  labourer  obtains  all  her 
fat  for  nothing,  for  she  saves  the  scummings  of  her 
bacon-pot  for  this  use  ;  and  if  the  grease  abounds 
with  salt,  she  causes  the  salt  to  precipitate  to  the 
bottom  by  setting  the  scummings  in  a  warm  oven. 
Where  hogs  are  not  much  in  use,  and  especially 
by  the  seaside,  the  coarser  animal  oils  will  come 
very  cheap.  A  pound  of  common  grease  may  be 
procured  for  fourpence,  and  about  six  pounds  of 
grease  will  dip  a  pound  of  rushes,  and  a  pound  of 
rushes  may  be  bought  for  one  shilling  ;  so  that  a 
pound  of  rushes,  medicated  and  ready  for  use,  will 
cost  three  shillings.  If  men  that  keep  bees  will 
mix  a  little  wax  with  the  grease,  it  will  give  it  a 
consistency,  and  render  it  more  cleanly,  and  make 
the  rushes  burn  longer  :  mutton  suet  would  have 
the  same  effect. 

A  good  rush,  which  measured  in  length  two 
feet  four  inches  and  a  half,  being  minuted,  burned 


OF    SELBORNE.  233 

only  three  minutes  short  of  an  hour ;  and  a  rush 
of  still  greater  length  has  been  known  to  burn  one 
hour  and  a  quarter. 

These  rushes  give  a  good  clear  light.  Watch, 
lights  (coated  with  tallow),  it  is  true,  shed  a  dismal 
one,  "  darkness  visible ;"  but  then  the  wicks  of 
those  have  two  ribs  of  the  rind  or  peel  to  support 
the  pith,  while  the  wick  of  the  dipped  rush  has  but 
one.  The  two  ribs  are  intended  to  impede  the 
progress  of  the  flame,  and  make  the  candle  last. 

In  a  pound  of  dry  rushes  avoirdupois,  which  I 
caused  to  be  weighed  and  numbered,  we  found  up- 
ward of  one  thousand  six  hundred  individuals. 
Now  suppose  each  of  these  burns,  one  with  ano- 
ther, only  half  an  hour,  then  a  poor  man  will  pur- 
chase eight  hundred  hours  of  light,  a  time  exceed- 
ing thirty-three  entire  days,  for  three  shillings. 
According  to  this  account,  each  rush,  before  dip- 
ping, costs  one  thirty-third  of  a  farthing,  and  one 
eleventh  afterward.  Thus  a  poor  family  will  enjoy 
five  and  a  half  hours  of  comfortable  light  for  a 
farthing.  An  experienced  old  housekeeper  assures 
me  that  one  pound  and  a  half  of  rushes  completely 
supplies  his  family  the  year  round,  since  working 
people  burn  no  candle  in  the  long  days,  because 
they  rise  and  go  to  bed  by  daylight. 

Little  farmers  use  rushes  much  in  the  short  days, 
both  morning  and  evening,  in  the  dairy  and  kitch- 
en ;  but  the  very  poor,  who  are  always  the  worst 
economists,  and,  therefore,  must  continue  very 
poor,  buy  a  halfpenny  candle  every  evening,  which, 
in  their  blowing,  open  rooms,  does  not  burn  much 
more  than  two  hours.  Thus  have  they  only  two 
hours'  light  for  their  money  instead  of  eleven. 

U2 


234  NATURAL  HISTORY 

While  on  the  subject  of  rural  economy,  it  may 
not  be  improper  to  mention  a  pretty  implement  of 
housewifery  that  we  have  seen  nowhere  else  ;  that 
is,  little  neat  besoms  which  our  foresters  make 
from  the  stalks  of  the  polytricum  commune,  or  great 
golden  maiden-hair,  which  they  call  silkwood,  and 
find  plenty  in  the  bogs.  When  this  moss  is  well 
combed  and  dressed,  and  divested  of  its  outer  skin, 
it  becomes  of  a  beautiful  bright  chestnut'  colour, 
and,  being  soft  and  pliant,  is  very  proper  for  the 
dusting  of  beds,  curtains,  carpets,  hangings,  &c. 
If  these  besoms  were  known  to  the  brush-makers 
in  town,  it  is  probable  they  might  come  much  in 
use  for  the  purpose  above  mentioned.* 


LETTER    XXVII. 

Selborne,  Dec.  12,  1775. 
Dear  Sir, — We  had  in  this  village,  more  than 
twenty  years  ago,  an  idiot  boy,  whom  I  well  re- 
member,  who,  from  a  child,  showed  a  strong  pro- 
pensity to  bees  ;  they  were  his  food,  his  amusement, 
his  sole  object.  And  as  people  of  this  cast  have 
seldom  more  than  one  point  in  view,  so  this  lad  ex- 
erted all  his  few  faculties  on  this  one  pursuit.  In 
the  winter  he  dozed  away  his  time,  within  his  fa- 
ther's house,  by  the  fireside,  in  a  kind  of  torpid 
state,  seldom  departing  from  the  chimney  corner ; 
but  in  the  summer  he  was  all  alert,  and  in  quest  of 
his  game  in  the  fields,  and  on  sunny  banks.     Hon- 

*  A  besom  of  this  sort  was  to  be  seen  in  Sir  Ashton  Lever's 
museum. 


OP    SELBORNE.  235 

ey-bees,  humble-bees,  and  wasps  were  his  prey 
wherever  he  found  them  :  he  had  no  apprehensions 
from  their  stings,  but  would  seize  them  nudis  man,' 
ibus,  and  at  once  disarm  them  of  their  weapons, 
and  suck  their  bodies  for  the  sake  of  their  honey- 
bags.  Sometimes  he  would  fill  his  bosom,  between 
his  shirt  and  his  skin,  with  a  number  of  these  cap- 
tives, and  sometimes  would  confine  them  in  bottles. 
He  was  a  very  merops  apiaster,  or  bee-bird,  and 
very  injurious  to  men  that  kept  bees  ;  for  he  would 
slide  into  their  bee-gardens,  and,  sitting  down  be- 
fore the  stools,  would  rap  with  his  finger  on  the 
hives,  and  so  take  the  bees  as  they  came  out.  He 
has  been  known  to  overturn  hives  for  the  sake  of 
honey,  of  which  he  was  passionately  fond.  Where 
metheglin  was  making,  he  would  linger  round  the 
tubs  and  vessels,  begging  a  draught  of  what  he 
called  bee-wine.  As  he  ran  about,  he  used  to 
make  a  humming  noise  with  his  lips,  resembling 
the  buzzing  of  bees.  This  lad  was  lean  and  sal- 
low, and  of  a  cadaverous  complexion  ;  and,  except 
in  his  favourite  pursuit,  in  which  he  was  wonder- 
fully adroit,  discovered  no  manner  of  understand- 
ing. Had  his  capacity  been  better,  and  directed 
to  the  same  object,  he  had  perhaps  abated  much  of 
our  wonder  at  the  feats  of  a  more  modern  exhibit- 
er  of  bees ;  and  we  may  justly  say  of  him  now, 

"  Thou, 
Had  thy  presiding  star  propitious  shone, 
Shouldst  Wildman  be." 

When  a  tall  youth,  he  was  removed  from  hence 
to  a  distant  village,  where  he  died,  as  I  understand, 
before  he  arrived  at  manhood. 


236  NATURAL  HISTORY 


LETTER     XXVIII. 


Selborne,  Feb.  7,  1776. 

Dear  Str, — In  heavy  fogs,  on  elevated  situa- 
tions especially,  trees  are  perfect  alembics  ;  and  no 
one  that  has  not  attended  to  such  matters  can  ima- 
gine how  much  water  one  tree  will  distil  in  a 
night's  time,  by  condensing  the  vapour,  which  trick- 
les down  the  twigs  and  boughs  so  as  to  make  the 
ground  below  quite  in  a  float.  In  Newton  Lane, 
in  October,  1775,  on  a  misty  day,  a  particular  oak 
in  leaf  dropped  so  fast  that  the  cartway  stood  in 
puddles  and  the  ruts  ran  with  water,  though  the 
ground  in  general  was  dusty. 

In  some  of  our  smaller  islands  in  the  West  In- 
dies, if  I  mistake  not,  there  are  no  springs  or  riv- 
ers ;  but  the  people  are  supplied  with  that  neces- 
sary element,  water,  merely  by  the  dripping  of 
some  large  tall  trees,  which,  standing  in  the  bosom 
of  a  mountain,  keep  their  heads  constantly  envel- 
oped with  fogs  and  clouds,  from  which  they  dis- 
pense their  kindly,  never-ceasing  moisture,  and  so 
render  those  districts  habitable  by  condensation 
alone. 

Trees  in  leaf  have  such  a  vast  proportion  more 
of  surface  than  those  that  are  naked,  that,  in  the- 
ory, their  condensations  should  greatly  exceed  those 
that  are  stripped  of  their  leaves  ;  but  as  the  former 
imbibe  also  a  great  quantity  of  moisture,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  say  which  drip  most ;  but  this  I  know,  that 
deciduous  trees  that  are  entwined  with  much  ivy 
seem  to  distil  the  greatest  quantity.  Ivy. leaves  are 
smooth,  and  thick,  and  cold,  and  therefore  con- 
dense very  fast;  and,  besides,  evergreens  imbibe 


OF    SELBORNE.  237 

very  little.  These  facts  may  furnish  the  intelligent 
with  hints  concerning  what  sort  of  trees  they  should 
plant  round  small  ponds  that  they  would  wish  to  be 
perennial,  and  show  them  how  advantageous  some 
trees  are  in  preference  to  others. 

Trees  perspire  profusely,  condense  largely,  and 
check  evaporation  so  much  that  woods  are  always 
moist :  no  wonder,  therefore,  that  they  contribute 
much  to  pools  and  streams. 

That  trees  are  great  promoters  of  lakes  and 
rivers  appears  from  a  well-known  fact  in  North 
America ;  for,  since  the  woods  and  forests  have 
been  grubbed  and  cleared,  all  bodies  of  water  are 
much  diminished  ;  so  that  some  streams,  that  were 
very  considerable  a  century  ago,  will  not  now  drive 
a  common  mill.*  Besides,  most  woodlands,  forests, 
and  chases  with  us  abound  with  pools  and  morass- 
es, no  doubt  for  the  reason  given  above. 

To  a  thinking  mind,  few  phenomena  are  more 
strange  than  the  state  of  littJe  ponds  on  the  sum- 
mits of  chalk- hills,  many  of  which  are  never  dry 
in  the  most  trying  droughts  of  summer.  On  chalk- 
hills,  1  say,  because  in  many  rocky  and  gravelly 
soils  springs  usually  break  out  pretty  high  on  the 
sides  of  elevated  grounds  and  mountains  ;  but  no 
persons  acquainted  with  chalky  districts  will  allow 
that  they  ever  saw  springs  in  such  a  soil  but  in 
valleys  and  bottoms,  since  the  waters  of  so  pervi- 
ous a  stratum  as  chalk  all  lie  on  one  dead  level,  as 
well-diggers  have  assured  me  again  and  again. 

Now  we  have  many  such  little  round  ponds  in 
this  district,  and  one  in  particular  on  our  sheep- 
down,  three  hundred  feet  above  my  house,  which, 
*  Vide  Kalm's  Travels  in  North  America. 


238  NATURAL    HISTORY 

though  never  above  three  feet  deep  in  the  middle, 
and  not  more  than  thirty  feet  in  diameter,  and  con- 
taining, perhaps,  not  more  than  two  or  three  hun- 
dred hogsheads  of  water,  yet  never  is  known  to 
fail,  though  it  affords  drink  for  three  hundred  or 
four  hundred  sheep,  and  for  at  least  twenty  head  of 
large  cattle  besides.  This  pond,  it  is  true,  is  over- 
hung by  two  moderate  beeches,  that  doubtless,  at 
times,  afford  it  much  supply  ;  but  then  we  have 
others  as  small,  that,  without  the  aid  of  trees,  and 
in  spite  of  evaporation  from  sun  and  wind,  and 
perpetual  consumption  by  cattle,  yet  constantly 
maintain  a  moderate  share  of  water,  without  over- 
flowing in  the  wettest  seasons,  as  they  would  do  if 
supplied  by  springs.  By  my  journal  of  May,  1775, 
it  appears  that  "  the  small  and  even  considerable 
ponds  on  the  vales  are  now  dried  up,  while  the 
small  ponds  on  the  very  tops  of  hills  are  but  little 
affected."  Can  this  difference  be  accounted  for 
from  evaporation  alone,  which  certainly  is  more 
prevalent  in  bottoms?  or,  rather,  have  not  those 
elevated  pools  some  unnoticed  recruits,  which  in 
the  nighttime  counterbalance  the  waste  of  the  day, 
without  which  the  cattle  alone  must  soon  exhaust 
them  ?  And  here  it  will  be  necessary  to  enter  more 
minutely  into  the  cause.  Dr.  Hales,  in  his  Vege- 
table Statics,  advances,  from  experiment,  that 
"  the  moister  the  earth  is,  the  more  dew  falls  on  it 
in  a  night ;  and  more  than  a  double  quantity  of 
dew  falls  on  a  surface  of  water  than  there  does  on 
an  equal  surface  of  moist  earth."  Hence  we  see 
that  water,  by  its  coolness,  is  enabled  to  assimilate 
to  itself  a  large  quantity  of  moisture  nightly  by 
condensation ;  and  that  the  air,  when  loaded  with 


OF    SELBORNE.  239 

fogs  and  vapours,  and  even  with  copious  dews,  can 
alone  advance  a  considerable  and  never. failing  re- 
source. Persons  that  are  much  abroad,  and  travel 
early  and  late,  such  as  shepherds,  fishermen,  &c, 
can  tell  what  prodigious  fogs  prevail  in  the  night 
on  elevated  downs,  even  in  the  hottest  parts  of 
summer,  and  how  much  the  surfaces  of  things  are 
drenched  by  those  swimming  vapours,  though  to  the 
senses,  all  the  while,  little  moisture  seems  to  fall. 


LETTER     XXIX. 

Selborne,  April  29,  1776. 

Dear  Sir, — On  August  the  4th,  1775,  we  sur- 
prised a  large  viper  as  it  lay  in  the  grass,  basking 
in  the  sun,  with  its  young,  fifteen  in  number,  the 
shortest  of  which  measured  full  seven  inches,  and 
were  about  the  size  of  full-grown  earthworms. 
This  little  fry  had  the  true  viper  spirit  about  them, 
showing  great  alertness  :  they  twisted  and  wriggled 
about,  and  set  themselves  up,  and  gaped  very  wide 
when  touched  with  a  stick,  showing  manifest  tokens 
of  menace  and  defiance,  though  as  yet  they  had  no 
manner  of  fangs  that  we  could  find,  even  with  the 
help  of  our  glasses. 

To  a  thinking  mind,  nothing  is  more  wonderful 
than  that  early  instinct  which  impresses  young  an- 
imals with  the  notion  of  the  situation  of  their  nat- 
ural weapons,  and  of  using  them  properly  in  their 
own  defence,  even  before  those  weapons  subsist  or 
are  formed.  Thus  a  young  cock  will  spar  at  his 
adversary  before  his  spurs  are  grown,  and  a  calf 
or  lamb  will  push  with  their  heads  before  their  horns 


240 


NATURAL   HISTORY 


are  sprouted.  In  the  same  manner  did  these 
young  adders  attempt  to  bite  before  their  fangs 
were  in  being.  The  dam,  however,  was  furnished 
with  very  formidable  ones,  which  we  lifted  up 
(for  they  fold  down  when  not  used),  and  cut  them 
off  with  our  scissors. 


LETTER     XXX. 

Selborne,  May  9, 1776. 

Dear  Sir, — 

"  Admorunt  ubera  tigres." 

We  have  remarked  in  a  former  letter  how  much 
incongruous  animals,  in  a  lonely  state,  may  be  at- 
tached to  each  other  from  a  spirit  of  sociality ;  in 
this  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  recount  a  different  mo- 
tive, which  has  been  known  to  create  as  strange  a 
fondness. 

My  friend  had  a  little  helpless  leveret  brought  to 
him,  which  the  servants  fed  with  milk  in  a  spoon, 
and  about  the  same  time  his  Cat  had  kittens,  which 


OF    SELBORNE.  241 

were  despatched  and  buried.  The  hare  was  soon 
lost,  and  supposed  to  be  gone  the  way  of  most 
foundlings,  to  be  killed  by  some  dog  or  cat.  How- 
ever, in  about  a  fortnight,  as  the  master  was  sitting 
in  his  garden  in  the  dusk  of  evening,  he  observed 
his  cat,  with  tail  erect,  trotting  towards  him,  and 
calling  with  little,  short,  inward  notes  of  compla- 
cency, such  as  they  use  towards  their  kittens,  and 
something  gambolling  after,  which  proved  to  be  the 
leveret  that  the  cat  had  supported  with  her  milk, 
and  continued  to  support  with  great  affection. 

Thus  was  a  graminivorous  animal  nurtured  by  a 
carnivorous  and  predaceous  one  ! 

Why  so  cruel  and  sanguinary  a  beast  as  a  cat, 
of  the  ferocious  genus  of  felis,  the  murium  leo,  as 
Linnseus  calls  it,  should  be  affected  with  any  ten- 
derness towards  an  animal  which  is  its  natural  prey, 
is  not  so  easy  to  determine. 

This  strange  affection  probably  was  occasioned 
by  that  desiderium,  those  tender  maternal  feelings, 
which  the  loss  of  her  kittens  had  awakened  in  her 
breast,  till,  from  habit,  she  became  as  much  de- 
lighted with  this  foundling  as  if  it  had  been  her  real 
offspring. 

This  incident  is  no  bad  solution  of  that  strange 
circumstance  which  grave  historians,  as  well  as  the 
poets,  assert,  of  exposed  children  being  sometimes 
nurtured  by  female  wild  beasts  that  probably  had 
lost  their  young.  For  it  is  not  one  whit  more  mar- 
vellous that  Romulus  and  Remus,  in  their  infant 
state,  should  be  nursed  by  a  she-wolf,  than  that  a 
poor  little  suckling  leveret  should  be  fostered  and 
cherished  by  a  bloody  grimalkin.* 

*  We  have  also  the  following  note  by  Mr.  White  in  his  Ob- 

X 


242  NATURAL   HISTORY 

"  Viridi  foetam  Mavortis  in  antro 
Procubuisse  lupam  :  geminos  huic  ubera  circum 
Ludere  pendentes  pueros,  et  lambere  matrem 
lmpavidos  :  illam  tereti  cervice  reflexam 
Mulcere  alternos,  et  corpora  fingere  lingua." 


LETTER    XXXI. 

Selborne,  May  20,  1777. 

Dear  Sir, — Lands  that  are  subject  to  frequent 
inundations  are  always  poor,  and  probably  the  rea- 
son may  be  because  the  worms  are  drowned.  The 
most  insignificant  insects  and  reptiles  are  of  much 
more  consequence,  and  have  much  more  influence 
in  the  economy  of  Nature  than  the  incurious  are 
aware  of ;  and  are  mighty  in  their  effect,  from  their 
minuteness,  which  renders  them  less  an  object  of 
attention,  and  from  their  numbers  and  fecundity. 
Earthworms,  though  in  appearance  a  small  and 
despicable  link  in  the  chain  of  Nature,  yet,  if  lost, 
would  make  a  lamentable  chasm.  For,  to  say 
nothing  of  half  the  birds  and  some  quadrupeds 

servations :  "  A  boy  has  taken  three  little  young  squirrels  in 
their  nest,  or  eyry,  as  it  is  called  in  those  parts.  These  small 
creatures  he  put  under  the  care  of  a  cat  who  had  lately  lost  her 
kittens,  and  finds  that  she  nurses  and  suckles  them  with  the 
same  assiduity  and  affection  as  if  they  were  heT  own  offspring. 
This  circumstance  corroborates  my  suspicion,  that  the  mention 
of  exposed  and  deserted  children  being  nurtured  by  female  beasts 
of  prey  who  had  lost  their  young  may  not  be  so  improbable  an 
incident  as  many  have  supposed,  and,  therefore,  may  be  a  justi- 
fication of  those  authors  who  have  gravely  mentioned  what  some 
have  deemed  to  be  a  wild  and  improbable  story.  So  many  peo- 
ple went  to  see  the  little  squirrels  suckled  by  a  cat,  that  the  fos- 
ter-mother became  jealous  of  her  charge  and  in  pain  for  their 
safety,  and  therefore  hid  them  over  the  ceiling,  where  one  died. 
This  circumstance  shows  her  affection  for  these  foundlings,  and 
that  she  supposed  the  squirrels  to  be  her  own  young." 


OF    SELBORNE.  243 

which  are  almost  entirely  supported  by  them, 
worms  seem  to  be  great  promoters  of  vegetation, 
which  would  proceed  but  lamely  without  them,  by 
boring,  perforating,  and  loosening  the  soil,  and  ren- 
dering it  pervious  to  rains  and  the  fibres  of  plants, 
by  drawing  straws,  and  stalks  of  leaves  and  twigs 
into  it,  and  most  of  all  by  throwing  up  such  infinite 
numbers  of  lumps  of  earth,  called  wormcasts,  which, 
being  their  excrement,  is  a  fine  manure  for  grain 
and  grass.  Worms  probably  provide  new  soil  for 
hills  and  slopes  where  the  rain  washes  the  earth 
away ;  and  they  affect  slopes,  probably  to  avoid 
being  flooded.  Gardeners  and  farmers  express 
their  detestation  of  worms  ;  the  former  because 
they  render  their  walks  unsightly,  and  make  them 
much  work,  and  the  latter  because,  as  they  think, 
worms  eat  their  green  corn.  But  these  men  would 
find  that  the  earth  without  worms  would  soon  be- 
come cold,  hard-bound,  and  void  of  fermentation, 
and  consequently  steril ;  and  besides,  in  favour  of 
worms,  it  should  be  hinted  that  green  corn,  plants, 
and  flowers  are  not  so  much  injured  by  them  as  by 
many  species  of  coleoptera  (scarabs)  and  tipulm 
(long-legs),  in  their  larva  or  grub  state,  and  by  un- 
noticed myriads  of  small  shell-less  snails,  called 
slugs,  which  silently  and  imperceptibly  make  ama- 
zing havoc  in  the  field  and  garden.* 

These  hints  we  think  proper  to  throw  out,  in  or- 
der to  set  the  inquisitive  and  discerning  to  work. 

A   good  monography  of  worms  would  afford 

*  Farmer  Young,  of  Norton  farm,  says  this  spring  (1777)  about 
four  acres  of  his  wheat  in  one  field  were  entirely  destroyed  by 
slugs,  which  swarmed  on  the  blades  of  corn,  and  devoured  it  as 
fast  as  it  sprang. 


244  NATURAL    HISTORY 

much  entertainment  and  information  at  the  same 
time,  and  would  open  a  large  and  new  field  in  nat- 
ural history.  Worms  work  most  in  the  spring, 
but  by  no  means  lie  torpid  in  the  dead  months ; 
are  out  every  mild  night  in  the  winter,  as  any  per- 
son may  be  convinced  that  will  take  the  pains  to 
examine  his  grassplats  with  a  candle. 


LETTER     XXXII. 

Selborne,  Nov.  22,  1777. 

Dear  Sir, — You  cannot  but  remember  that  the 
26th  and  27th  of  last  March  were  very  hot  days, 
so  sultry  that  everybody  complained  and  were 
restless  under  those  sensations  to  which  they  had 
not  been  reconciled  by  gradual  approaches. 

This  sudden  summer-like  heat  was  attended  by 
many  summer  coincidences ;  for  on  those  two 
days  the  thermometer  rose  to  66°  in  the  shade ; 
many  species  of  insects  revived  and  came  forth  ; 
some  bees  swarmed  in  this  neighbourhood  ;  the  old 
tortoise,  near  Lewes,  in  Sussex,  awakened,  and 
came  forth  out  of  its  dormitory  ;  and,  what  is  most 
to  my  present  purpose,  many  house-swallows  ap- 
peared, and  were  very  alert  in  many  places,  and 
particularly  at  Cobham,  in  Surrey. 

But  as  that  short  warm  period  was  succeeded 
as  well  as  preceded  by  harsh,  severe  weather,  with 
frequent  frosts,  and  ice,  and  cutting  winds,  the  in- 
sects withdrew,  the  tortoise  retired  again  into  the 
ground,  and  the  swallows  were  seen  no  more  until 
the  10th  of  April,  when,  the  rigour  of  the  spring 
abating,  a  softer  season  began  to  prevail. 


OF    SELBORNE.  245 

Again,  it  appears  by  my  journals  for  many  years 
past,  that  house-martins  retire,  to  a  bird,  about  the 
beginning  of  October,  so  that  a  person  not  very 
observant  of  such  matters  would  conclude  that  they 
had  taken  their  last  farewell ;  but  then  it  may  be 
seen  in  my  diaries,  also,  that  considerable  flocks 
have  discovered  themselves  again  in  the  first  week 
of  November,  and  often  on  the  4th  day  of  that 
month,  only  for  one  day ;  and  that  not  as  if  they 
were  in  actual  migration,  but  playing  about  at  their 
leisure  and  feeding  calmly,  as  if  no  enterprise  of 
moment  at  all  agitated  their  spirits.  And  this  was 
the  case  in  the  beginning  of  this  very  month ;  for 
on  the  4th  of  November  more  than  twenty  house- 
martins,  which,  in  appearance,  had  all  departed 
about  the  7th  of  October,  were  seen  again,  for  that 
one  morning  only,  sporting  between  my  fields  and 
the  Hanger,  and  feasting  on  insects  which  swarmed 
in  that  sheltered  district.  The  preceding  day  was 
wet  and  blustering,  but  the  fourth  was  dark,  and 
mild,  and  soft,  the  wind  at  southwest,  and  the  ther- 
mometer at  58^° — a  pitch  not  common  at  that 
season  of  the  year.  Moreover,  it  may  not  be 
amiss  to  add  in  this  place,  that  whenever  the  ther- 
mometer is  above  50°,  the  bat  comes  flitting  out  in 
every  autumnal  and  winter  month. 

From  all  these  circumstances  laid  together,  it  is 
obvious  that  torpid  insects,  reptiles,  and  quadrupeds 
are  awakened  from  their  profoundest  slumbers  by 
a  little  untimely  warmth ;  and,  therefore,  that  no- 
thing so  much  promotes  this  deathlike  stupor  as  a 
defect  of  heat.  And,  farther,  it  is  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  two  whole  species,  or,  at  least,  many 
individuals  of  these  two  species,  of  British  hirun- 
X2 


246  NATURAL   HISTORY 

dines,  do  never  leave  this  island  at  all,  but  partake 
of  the  same  benumbed  state ;  for  we  cannot  sup- 
pose that,  after  a  month's  absence,  house-martins 
can  return  from  southern  regions  to  appear  for  one 
morning  in  November,  or  that  house-swallows 
should  leave  the  districts  of  Africa  to  enjoy,  in 
March,  the  transient  summer  of  a  couple  of  days. 


LETTER    XXXIII. 

Selborne,  Jan.  8, 1778. 
Dear  Sir,— There  was  in  this  village,  several 
years  ago,  a  miserable  pauper,  who  from  his  birth 
was  afflicted  with  a  leprosy,  as  far  as  we  are 
aware,  of  a  singular  kind,  since  it  affected  only 
the  palms  of  his  hands  and  the  soles  of  his  feet. 
This  eruption  usually  broke  out  twice  in  the  year, 
at  the  spring  and  fall,  and  left  the  skin  so  thin  and 
tender  that  neither  his  hands  nor  feet  were  able  to 
perform  their  functions,  so  that  the  poor  object  was 
half  his  time  on  crutches,  incapable  of  employ, 
and  languishing  in  a  tiresome  state  of  indolence 
and  inactivity.  In  this  sad  plight  he  dragged  on  a 
miserable  existence,  a  burden  to  himself  and  his 
parish,  which  was  obliged  to  support  him,  till  he 
was  relieved  by  death  at  more  than  thirty  years  of 
age. 

We  knew  his  parents,  neither  of  whom  were 
lepers  ;  his  father,  in  particular,  lived  to  be  far  ad- 
vanced in  years. 

In  all  ages  the  leprosy  has  made  dreadful  havoc 
among  mankind.     The  Israelites  seem  to  have  been 


OF    SELBORNE.  247 

greatly  afflicted  with  it  from  the  most  remote  times 
as  appears  from  the  peculiar  and  repeated  injunc- 
tions given  them  in  the  Levitical  law.*  Nor  was 
the  rancour  of  this  dreadful  disorder  much  abated 
in  the  last  period  of  their  commonwealth,  as  may 
be  seen  in  many  passages  of  the  New  Testament. 

Some  centuries  ago,  this  horrible  distemper  pre- 
vailed all  over  Europe ;  and  our  forefathers  were 
by  no  means  exempt,  as  appears  by  the  large  pro- 
vision made  for  objects  labouring  under  this  calam- 
ity. There  was  a  hospital  for  female  lepers  in 
the  diocese  of  Lincoln,  a  noble  one  near  Durham, 
three  in  London  and  Southwark,  and  perhaps  many 
more  in  or  near  our  great  towns  and  cities.  More- 
over, some  crowned  heads,  and  other  wealthy  and 
charitable  personages,  bequeathed  large  legacies  to 
such  poor  people  as  languished  under  this  hopeless 
infirmity. 

It  must  therefore,  in  these  days,  be,  to  a  humane 
and  thinking  person,  a  matter  of  equal  wonder  and 
satisfaction,  when  he  contemplates  how  nearly  this 
pest  is  eradicated,  and  observes  that  a  leper  is  now 
a  rare  sight.  He  will,  moreover,  when  engaged  in 
such  a  train  of  thought,  naturally  inquire  for  the 
reason.  This  happy  change,  perhaps,  may  have 
originated  and  been  continued  from  the  much  small- 
er quantity  of  salted  meat  and  fish  now  eaten  in 
these  kingdoms ;  from  the  use  of  linen  next  the 
skin ;  from  the  plenty  of  better  bread ;  and  from 
the  profusion  of  fruits,  roots,  legumes,  and  greens, 
so  common  in  every  family.  Three  or  four  centu- 
ries ago,  before  there  were  any  enclosures,  sown- 
grasses,  field-turnips,  field-carrots,  or  hay,  all  the 
*  See  Leviticus,  chap  xiii.  and  »▼. 


248  NATURAL   HISTORY 

cattle  that  had  grown  fat  in  summer,  and  were  not 
killed  for  winter  use,  were  turned  out  soon  after 
Michaelmas  to  shift  as  they  could  through  the  dead 
months,  so  that  no  fresh  meat  could  be  had  in 
winter  or  spring.  Hence  the  marvellous  account 
of  the  vast  stores  of  salted  flesh  found  in  the  larder 
of  the  eldest  Spencer,*  in  the  days  of  Edward  the 
Second,  even  so  late  in  the  spring  as  the  3d  of  May. 
It  was  from  magazines  like  these  that  the  turbulent 
barons  supported  in  idleness  their  riotous  swarms 
of  retainers,  ready  for  any  disorder  or  mischief. 
But  agriculture  has  now  arrived  at  such  a  pitch  of 
perfection,  that  our  best  and  fattest  meats  are  kill- 
ed in  the  winter;  and  no  man  needs  eat  salted 
flesh,  unless  he  prefer  it,  that  has  money  to  buy 
fresh. 

One  cause  of  this  distemper  might  be,  no  doubt, 
the  quantity  of  wretched  fresh  and  salt  fish  con- 
sumed by  the  commonalty  at  all  seasons,  as  well  as 
in  Lent,  which  our  poor  now  would  hardly  be  per- 
suaded to  touch. 

The  use  of  linen  changes,  shirts  or  shifts,  in  the 
room  of  sordid  or  filthy  woollen,  long  worn  next 
the  skin,  is  a  matter  of  neatness  comparatively 
modern,  but  must  prove  a  great  means  of  prevent- 
ing cutaneous  ails.  At  this  very  time,  woollen 
instead  of  linen  prevails  among  the  poorer  Welsh, 
who  are  subject  to  eruptions. 

The  plenty  of  good  wheaten  bread  that  now  is 
found  among  ail  ranks  of  people  in  the  south,  in- 
stead of  that  miserable  sort  which  used  in  old  days 
to  be  made  of  barley  or  beans,  may  contribute  not 

*  Viz.,  six  hundred  bacons,  eighty  carcasses  of  beef,  and  six 
hundred  muttons. 


OF  SELBORNE.  249 

a  little  to  the  sweetening  their  blood  and  correcting 
their  juices  ;  for  the  inhabitants  of  mountainous  dis- 
tricts to  this  day  are  still  liable  to  cutaneous  disor- 
ders, from  a  wretchedness  and  poverty  of  diet. 

As  to  the  produce  of  a  garden,  every  middle- 
aged  person  of  observation  may  perceive,  within 
his  own  memory,  both  in  town  and  country,  how 
vastly  the  consumption  of  vegetables  is  increased. 
Green-stalls  in  cities  now  support  multitudes  in  a 
comfortable  state,  while  gardeners  get  fortunes. 
Every  decent  labourer,  also,  has  his  garden,  which 
is  half  his  support  as  well  as  his  delight ;  and 
common  farmers  provide  plenty  of  beans,  pease, 
and  greens  for  their  hinds  to  eat  with  their  bacon; 
and  those  few  that  do  not  are  despised  for  their 
sordid  parsimony,  and  looked  upon  as  regardless 
of  the  welfare  of  their  dependants.  Potatoes  have 
prevailed  in  this  little  district,  by  means  of  pre- 
miums, within  these  twenty  years  only,  and  are 
much  esteemed  here  now  by  the  poor,  who  would 
scarce  have  ventured  to  taste  them  in  the  last 
reign. 

Our  Saxon  ancestors  certainly  had  some  sort  of 
cabbage,  because  they  call  the  month  of  February 
sprout-cale  ;  but  long  after  their  days  the  cultiva- 
tion of  gardens  was  little  attended  to.  The  religi- 
ous, being  men  of  leisure,  and  keeping  up  a  constant 
correspondence  with  Italy,  were  the  first  people 
among  us  who  had  gardens  and  fruit-trees  in  any 
perfection,  within  the  walls  of  their  abbeys*  and 

*  "  In  monasteries  the  lamp  of  knowledge  continued  to  burn, 
however  dimly.  In  them  the  men  of  business  were  formed  for 
the  state.  The  art  of  writing  was  cultivated  by  the  monks  ; 
they  were  the  only  proficients  in  mechanics,  gardening,  and  ar- 
chitecture."— See  Dalryuplb's  Annals  of  Scotland. 


250  NATURAL   HISTORY 

priories.  The  barons  neglected  every  pursuit  that 
did  not  lead  to  war  or  tend  to  the  pleasure  of  the 
chase. 

It  was  not  till  gentlemen  took  up  the  study  of 
horticulture  themselves  that  the  knowledge  of  gar- 
dening made  such  hasty  advances.  Lord  Cobham, 
Lord  Ila,  and  Mr.  Waller  of  Beaconsfield,  were 
some  of  the  first  people  of  rank  that  promoted  the 
elegant  science  of  ornamenting,  without  despising 
the  superintendence  of  the  kitchen  quarters  and 
fruit  walls. 

A  remark  made  by  the  excellent  Mr.  Ray  in  his 
Tour  of  Europe  at  once  surprises  us  and  corrobo- 
rates what  has  been  advanced  above  ;  for  we  find 
him  observing,  so  late  as  his  days,  that  "  the  Ital- 
ians used  several  herbs  for  salads  which  are  not 
yet  or  have  not  been  but  lately  used  in  England, 
viz.,  selleri  (celery),  which  is  nothing  else  but  the 
sweet  smallage,  the  young  shoots  whereof,  with  a 
little  of  the  head  of  the  root  cut  off,  they  eat  raw 
with  oil  and  pepper."  And  farther  he  adds, 
"  curled  endive  blanched  is  much  used  beyond 
seas,  and  for  a  raw  salad  seemed  to  excel  lettuce 
itself."  Now  this  journey  was  undertaken  no 
longer  ago  than  in  the  year  1663. 


LETTER     XXXIV. 

Selborne,  Feb.  12,  177a 
Dear  Sir, 

"  Forte  puer,  comitum  seductus  ab  agmine  fido, 
Dixerat,  ecquis  adest?  et,  adest,  responderat  echo. 
Hie  stupet ;  utque  aciem  partes  divisit  in  omnes  ; 
Voee,  veni,  clauaat  magna.    Vocat  ilia  vocantem." 


OF    SELBORNE.  251 

In  a  district  so  diversified  as  this,  so  full  of  hol- 
low vales  and  hanging  woods,  it  is  no  wonder  that 
echoes  should  abound.  Many  we  have  discovered 
that  return  the  cry  of  a  pack  of  dogs,  the  notes  of 
a  hunting-horn,  a  tuneable  ring  of  bells,  or  the 
melody  of  birds,  very  agreeably  ;  but  we  were  still 
at  a  loss  for  a  polysyllabical  articulate  echo,  till  a 
young  gentleman,  who  had  parted  from  his  com- 
pany in  a  summer  evening  walk,  and  was  calling 
after  them,  stumbled  upon  a  very  curious  one  in  a 
spot  where  it  might  least  be  expected.  At  first  he 
was  much  surprised,  and  could  not  be  persuaded 
but  that  he  was  mocked  by  some  boy  ;  but,  repeat- 
ing his  trials  in  several  languages,  and  finding  his 
respondent  to  be  a  very  adroit  polyglot,  he  then 
discerned  the  deception. 

This  echo,  in  an  evening  before  rural  noises 
cease,  would  repeat  ten  syllables  most  articulately 
and  distinctly,  especially  if  quick  dactyls  were 
chosen.     The  last  syllables  of 

"  Tityre,  tu  patulae  recubans" 

were  as  audibly  and  intelligibly  returned  as  the 
first ;  and  there  is  no  doubt,  could  trial  have  been 
made,  but  that  at  midnight,  when  the  air  is  very 
elastic,  and  a  dead  stillness  prevails,  one  or  two 
syllables  more  might  have  been  obtained  ;  but  the 
distance  rendered  so  late  an  experiment  very  in- 
convenient. 

Quick  dactyls,  we  observed,  succeeded  best ;  for 
when  we  came  to  try  its  powers  in  slow,  heavy,  em- 
barrassed spondees  of  the  same  number  of  syllables, 

"Monstrum  horrendum,  informe,  ingens," 

we  could  perceive  a  return  but  of  four  or  five. 


252  NATURAL   HISTORY 

All  echoes  have  some  one  place  to  which  they 
are  returned  stronger  and  more  distinct  than  to  any 
other,  and  that  is  always  the  place  that  lies  at  right 
angles  with  the  object  of  repercussion,  and  is  not 
too  near  nor  too  far  off.  Buildings  or  naked  rocks 
re-echo  much  more  articulately  than  hanging  woods 
or  vales,  because  in  the  latter  the  voice  is,  as  it 
were,  entangled  and  embarrassed  in  the  covert, 
and  weakened  in  the  rebound. 

The  true  object  of  this  echo,  as  we  found  by  va- 
rious experiments,  in  the  stone-built,  tiled  hopkiln 
in  Gaily  Lane,  which  measures  in  front  forty  feet, 
and  from  the  ground  to  the  eaves  twelve  feet. 
The  true  centrwn  phonicum,  or  just  distance,  is  one 
particular  spot  in  the  King's  Field,  in  the  path  to 
Nore  Hill,  on  the  very  brink  of  the  steep  balk  above 
the  hollow  partway.  In  this  case  there  is  no 
choice  of  distance ;  but  the  path,  by  mere  contin- 
gency, happens  to  be  the  lucky,  the  identical  spot, 
because  the  ground  rises  or  falls  so  immediately, 
if  the  speaker  either  retires  or  advances,  that  his 
mouth  would  at  once  be  above  or  below  the  object. 

We  measured  this  polysyllabical  echo  with  great 
exactness,  and  found  the  distance  to  fall  very  short 
of  Dr.  Plot's  rule  for  distinct  articulation ;  for  the 
doctor,  in  his  History  of  Oxfordshire,  allows  one 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  for  the  return  of  each  syl- 
lable distinctly ;  hence  this  echo,  which  gives  ten 
distinct  syllables,  ought  to  measure  four  hundred 
yards,  or  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  to  each  syl- 
lable ;  whereas  our  distance  is  only  two  hundred 
and  fifty-eight  yards,  or  near  seventy-five  feet  to 
each  syllable.  Thus  our  measure  falls  short  of 
the  doctor's  as  five  to  eight ;  but  then  it  must  be 


op  selborne.  253 

acknowledged  that  this  candid  philosopher  was 
convinced  afterward  that  some  latitude  must  be  ad« 
mitted  of  in  the  distance  of  echoes  according  to 
time  and  place. 

When  experiments  of  this  sort  are  making,  it 
should  always  be  remembered  that  weather  and 
the  time  of  day  have  a  vast  influence  on  an  echo ; 
for  a  dull,  heavy,  moist  air  deadens  and  clogs  the 
sound,  and  hot  sunshine  renders  the  air  thin  and 
weak,  and  deprives  it  of  all  its  springiness,  and  a 
ruffling  wind  quite  defeats  the  whole.  In  a  still, 
clear,  dewy  evening,  the  air  is  most  elastic,  and 
perhaps  the  later  the  hour  the  more  so. 

Echo  has  always  been  so  amusing  to  the  imagi- 
nation that  the  poets  have  personified  her,  and  in 
their  hands  she  has  been  the  occasion  of  many  a 
beautiful  fiction.  Nor  need  the  gravest  man  be 
ashamed  to  appear  taken  with  such  a  phenomenon, 
since  it  may  become  the  subject  of  philosophical  or 
mathematical  inquiries. 

One  should  have  imagined  that  echoes,  if  not 

entertaining,  must  at  least  have  been  harmless  and 

inoffensive  ;  yet  Virgil  advances  a  strange  notion, 

that  they  are  injurious  to  bees.     After  enumerating 

some  probable  and  reasonable  annoyances,  such  as 

prudent  owners  would  wish  far  removed  from  their 

bee-gardens,  he  adds, 

"  Aut  ubi  coricava  pulsu 
Saxa  sonant,  vocisque  offensa  resultat  imago." 

This  wild  and  fanciful  assertion  will  hardly  be 
admitted  by  the  philosophers  of  these  days,  espe- 
cially as  they  all  now  seem  agreed  that  insects  are 
not  furnished  with  any  organs  of  hearing  at  all. 
But  if  it  should  be  urged  that,  though  they  cannot 


254  NATURAL    HISTORY 

hear,  yet  perhaps  they  may  feel  the  repercussion 
of  sounds,  I  grant  it  is  possible  they  may.  Yet 
that  these  impressions  are  distasteful  or  hurtful  I 
deny,  because  bees,  in  good  summers,  thrive  well 
in  my  outlet,  where  the  echoes  are  very  strong ; 
for  this  village  is  another  Anathoth,  a  place  of  re- 
sponses or  echoes.  Besides,  it  does  not  appear 
from  experiment  that  bees  are  in  any  way  capable 
of  being  affected  by  sounds  ;  for  I  have  often  tried 
my  own  with  a  large  speaking-trumpet  held  close 
to  their  hives,  and  with  such  an  exertion  of  voice 
as  would  have  hailed  a  ship  at  the  distance  of  a 
mile,  and  still  these  insects  pursued  their  various 
employments  undisturbed,  and  without  showing  the 
least  sensibility  or  resentment. 

Some  time  since  its  discovery  this  echo  is  be- 
come  totally  silent,  though  the  object  or  hopklin  re- 
mains :  nor  is  there  any  mystery  in  the  defect,  for 
the  field  between  is  planted  as  a  hopgarden,  and 
the  voice  of  the  speaker  is  totally  absorbed  and 
lost  among  the  poles  and  entangled  foliage  of  the 
hops.  And  when  the  poles  are  removed  in  autumn 
the  disappointment  is  the  same,  because  a  tail 
quickset  hedge,  nurtured  up  for  the  purpose  of  shel- 
ter to  the  hopground,  entirely  interrupts  the  im- 
pulse and  repercussion  of  the  voice ;  so  that,  till 
those  obstructions  are  removed,  no  more  of  its  gar- 
rulity can  be  expected. 

Should  any  gentleman  of  fortune  think  an  echo 
in  his  park  or  outlet  a  pleasing  incident,  he  might 
build  one  at  little  or  no  expense.  For,  whenever 
he  had  occasion  for  a  new  barn,  stable,  dog-kennel, 
or  the  like  structure,  it  would  be  only  needful  to 
erect  this  building  on  the  gentle  declivity  of  a  hill, 


OF    SELBORNE.  255 

with  a  like  rising  opposite  to  it,  at  a  few  hundred 
yards'  distance  ;  and  perhaps  success  might  be  the 
easier  ensured  could  some  canal,  lake,  or  stream 
intervene.  From  a  seat  at  the  centrum  phonicum 
he  and  his  friends  might  amuse  themselves  some- 
times of  an  evening  with  the  prattle  of  this  loqua- 
cious nymph,  of  whose  complacency  and  decent 
reserve  more  may  be  said  than  can  with  truth  of 
every  individual  of  her  sex,  since  she  is 

"  Quae  nee  reticere  loquenti, 
Nee  prior  ipsa  loqui,  didicit  resonabilis  echo." 

The  classic  reader  will,  I  trust,  pardon  the  fol- 
lowing lovely  quotation,  so  finely  describing  echoes, 
and  so  poetically  accounting  for  their  causes  from 
popular  superstition : 

"  Quae  bene  quom  videas,  rationem  reddere  possis 
Tute  tibi  atque  aliis,  quo  pacto  per  loca  sola 
Saxa  pareis  f'ormas  verborum  ex  ordine  reddant, 
Palanteis  comites  quom  monteis  inter  opacos 
Quaerimus,  et  magna  dispersos  voce  ciemus. 
Sex  etiam,  aut  septem  loca  vidi  reddere  voces 
Unam  quom  jaceres  :  ita  colles  collibus  ipsis 
Verba  repulsantes  iterabant  dicta  referre. 
Haec  loca  capripedes  Satyros,  Nymphasque  tenere 
Finitimi  fingunt,  et  Faunos  esse  loquuntur; 
Quorum  noctivago  strepitu,  ludoque  jocanti 
Adfirmant  volgo  taciturna  silentia  rumpi, 
Chordarumque  sonos  fieri,  dulceisque  querelas, 
Tibia  quas  fundit  digitis  pulsata  canentum ; 
Et  genus  agricolum  late  sentiscere,  quom  Pan 
Pinea  semiferi  capitis  velamina  quassans, 
Cnco  saepe  labro  calamos  pereurrit  hianteis, 
Fistula  silvestrem  ne  cesset  fundere  musam." 

Lucretius,  lib.  iv.,  1.  576. 


256  NATURAL   HISTORY 


LETTER     XXXV. 


Selborne,  May  13,  1778. 

Dear  Sir, — Among  the  many  singularities  at- 
tending those  amusing  birds,  the  swifts,  I  am  now 
confirmed  in  the  opinion  that  we  have  every  year 
the  same  number  of  pairs  invariably  ;  at  least  the 
result  of  my  inquiry  has  been  exactly  the  same  for 
a  long  time  past.  The  swallows  and  martins  are 
so  numerous,  and  so  widely  distributed  over  the 
village,  that  it  is  hardly  possible  to  recount  them  ; 
while  the  swifts,  though  they  do  not  all  build  in  the 
church,  yet  so  frequently  haunt  it,  and  play  and 
rendezvous  around  it,  that  they  are  easily  enumer- 
ated. The  number  that  I  constantly  find  are  eight 
pairs,  about  half  of  which  reside  in  the  church,  and 
the  rest  build  in  some  of  the  lowest  and  meanest 
thatched  cottages.  Now,  as  these  eight  pairs — 
allowance  being  made  for  accidents — yearly  in- 
crease to  eight  pairs  more,  what  becomes  annu- 
ally of  this  increase?  and  what  determines,  every 
spring,  which  pairs  shall  visit  us,  and  reoccupy 
their  ancient  haunts  ? 

Ever  since  I  have  attended  to  the  subject  of 
ornithology,  I  have  always  supposed  that  the  sud- 
den reverse  of  affection,  that  strange  avTioropyi), 
which  immediately  succeeds  in  the  feathered  kind 
to  the  most  passionate  fondness,  is  the  occasion  of 
an  equal  dispersion  of  birds  over  the  face  of  the 
earth.  Without  this  provision,  one  favourite  dis- 
trict would  be  crowded  with  inhabitants,  while 
others  would  be  destitute  and  forsaken.  But  the 
parent  birds  seem  to  maintain  a  jealous  superiority, 


OF    SELBORNE.  257 

and  to  oblige  the  young  to  seek  for  new  abodes ; 
and  the  rivalry  of  the  males  in  many  kinds  prevents 
their  crowding  the  one  on  the  other.  Whether  the 
swallow  and  house-martin  return  in  the  same  exact 
number  annually  is  not  easy  to  say,  for  reasons 
given  above  ;  but  it  is  apparent,  as  I  have  remarked 
before  in  my  monographies,  that  the  numbers  re- 
turning bear  no  manner  of  proportion  to  the  num- 
bers retiring. 


LETTER  XXXVI. 

Selborne,  June  2, 1778. 

Dear  Sir, — The  standing  objection  to  botany 
has  always  been,  that  it  is  a  pursuit  that  amuses 
the  fancy  and  exercises  the  memory,  without  im- 
proving the  mind  or  advancing  any  real  knowledge ; 
and,  where  the  science  is  carried  no  farther  than  a 
mere  systematic  classification,  the  charge  is  but 
too  true.  But  the  botanist  that  is  desirous  of  wi- 
ping off  this  aspersion  should  be  by  no  means  con- 
tent with  a  list  of  names ;  he  should  study  plants 
philosophically,  should  investigate  the  laws  of  ve- 
getation, should  examine  the  powers  and  virtues  of 
efficacious  herbs,  should  promote  their  cultivation, 
and  graft  the  gardener,  the  planter,  and  the  hus- 
bandman on  the  phytologist.  Not  that  system  is 
by  any  means  to  be  thrown  aside — without  system 
the  field  of  Nature  would  be  a  pathless  wilderness 
— but  system  should  be  subservient  to,  not  the  main 
object  of,  pursuit. 

Vegetation  is  highly  worthy  of  our  attention, 

Y2 


258  NATURAL   HISTORY 

and  in  itself  is  of  the  utmost  consequence  to  man- 
kind, and  productive  of  many  of  the  greatest  com- 
forts and  elegances  of  life.  To  plants  we  owe 
timber,  bread,  beer,  honey,  wine,  oil,  linen,  cotton, 
&c. :  what  not  only  strengthens  our  hearts  and  ex- 
hilarates our  spirits,  but  what  secures  us  from  in- 
clemencies of  the  weather  and  adorns  our  persons. 
Man,  in  his  true  state  of  nature,  seems  to  be  sub- 
sisted by  spontaneous  vegetation  ;  in  middle  climes, 
where  grasses  prevail,  he  mixes  some  animal  food 
with  the  produce  of  the  field  and  garden  ;  and  it  is 
towards  the  polar  extremes  only  that,  like  his  kin- 
dred, bears  and  wolves,  he  gorges  himself  with  flesh 
alone,  and  is  driven  to  what  hunger  has  never  been 
known  to  compel  the  very  beasts — to  prey  upon  his 
own  species.* 

The  productions  of  vegetation  have  had  a  vast 
influence  on  the  commerce  of  nations,  and  have 
been  the  great  promoters  of  navigation,  as  may  be 
seen  in  the  articles  of  sugar,  tea,  tobacco,  opium, 
ginseng,  betel,  pepper,  &c.  As  every  climate  has 
its  peculiar  produce,  our  natural  wants  bring  on  a 
mutual  intercourse,  so  that,  by  means  of  trade,  each 
distant  part  is  supplied  with  the  growth  of  every 
latitude.  But,  without  the  knowledge  of  plants  and 
their  culture,  we  must  have  been  content  with  our 
hips  and  haws,  without  enjoying  the  delicate  fruits 
of  India,  and  the  salutiferous  drugs  of  Peru. 

Instead  of  examining  the  minute  distinctions  of 
every  various  species  of  each  obscure  genus,  the 
botanist  should  endeavour  to  make  himself  ac- 
quainted with  those  that  are  useful.  You  shall  see 
a  man  readily  ascertain  every  herb  of  the  field,  yet 
*  See  the  late  voyages  to  the  South  Seas. 


OF    SELBORNE.  259 

hardly  know  wheat  from  barley,  or,  at  least,  one 
sort  of  wheat  or  barley  from  another. 

But,  of  all  sorts  of  vegetation,  the  grasses  seem 
to  be  most  neglected ;  neither  the  farmer  nor  the 
grazier  seem  to  distinguish  the  annual  from  the 
perennial,  the  hardy  from  the  tender,  nor  the  suc- 
culent and  nutritive  from  the  dry  and  juiceless. 

The  study  of  grasses  would  be  of  great  conse- 
quence to  a  northerly  and  grazing  kingdom.  The 
botanist  that  could  improve  the  sward  of  the  dis- 
trict where  he  lived  would  be  a  useful  member  of 
society  :  to  raise  a  thick  turf  on  a  naked  soil  would 
be  worth  volumes  of  systematic  knowledge  ;  and 
he  would  be  the  best  commonwealth's  man  that 
could  occasion  the  growth  of  "  two  blades  of  grass 
where  one  alone  was  seen  before." 


LETTER     XXXVII. 

Selbome,  July  3, 1778. 
Dear  Sir, — In  a  district  so  diversified  with  such 
•a  variety  of  hill  and  dale,  aspects  and  soils,  it  is  no 
wonder  that  great  choice  of  plants  should  be  found. 
Chalks,  clays,  sands,  sheepwalks  and  downs,  bogs, 
heaths,  woodlands,  and  champaign  fields,  cannot 
but  furnish  an  ample  flora.  The  deep  rocky  lanes 
abound  with  Jilices,  and  the  pastures  and  moist 
woods  with  fungi.  If  in  any  branch  of  botany  we 
may  seem  to  be  wanting,  it  must  be  in  the  large 
aquatic  plants,  which  are  not  to  be  expected  on  a 
spot  far  removed  from  rivers,  and  lying  up  amid 
the  hill-country  at  the  springheads.  To  enumer- 
ate all  the  plants  that  have  been  discovered  within 


260  NATURAL   HISTORY 

our  limits  would  be  a  needless  work ;  but  a  short 
list  of  the  more  rare,  and  the  spots  where  they  are 
to  be  found,  may  neither  be  unacceptable  nor  un- 
entertaining. 

Helleborus  foetidus,  stinking  hellebore,  bear's, 
foot  or  setterwort :  all  over  the  Highwood  and 
Coney-croft  Hanger  ;  this  continues  a  great  branch- 
ing plant  the  winter  through,  blossoming  about 
January,  and  is  very  ornamental  in  shady  walks 
and  shrubberies.  The  good  women  give  the  leaves 
powdered  to  children  troubled  with  worms  ;  but  it 
is  a  violent  remedy,  and  ought  to  be  administered 
with  caution. 

Helleborus  viridis,  green  hellebore :  in  the  deep 
stony  lane,  on  the  left  hand,  just  before  the  turning 
to  Norton  farm,  and  at  the  top  of  Middle  Dorton 
under  the  hedge ;  this  plant  dies  down  to  the 
ground  early  in  autumn,  and  springs  again  about 
February,  flowering  almost  as  soon  as  it  appears 
above  ground. 

Vaccinium  oxy  coccus,  creeping  bilberries,  or  cran- 
berries :  in  the  bogs  of  Bin's  Pond. 

Vaccinium  Myrtillus,  whortle,  or  bilberries :  on 
the  dry  hillocks  of  VVolmer  Forest. 

Drosera  rotundifolia,  round-leaved  sundew:  in 
the  bogs  of  Bin's  Pond. 

Drosera  longifolia,  long-leaved  sundew :  in  the 
bogs  of  Bin's  Pond. 

Comarum  palustre,  purple  comarum,  or  marsh 
cinque. foil :  in  the  bogs  of  Bin's  Pond. 

Hypericum  androscemum,  Tutsan,  St.  John's- 
wort :  in  the  stony,  hollow  lanes. 

Vinca  minor,  less  periwinkle  :  in  Selborne  Hang- 
er and  Shrub  Wood. 


OF    SELBORNE.  261 

Monatropa  hypopithys,  yellow  monotropa,  or 
bird's.nest :  in  Selborne  Hanger,  under  the  shady- 
beeches,  to  whose  roots  it  seems  to  be  parasitical, 
at  the  northwest  end  of  the  Hanger. 

Chlora  perfoliata,  Blackstonia  perfoliata,  Hud' 
soni,  perfoliated  yellow-wort :  on  the  banks  in  the 
King's  Field. 

Paris  quadrifolia,  herb  Paris,  true-love,  or  one- 
berry  :  in  the  Church  Litten  Coppice. 

Chrysosplenium  oppositifolium,  opposite-leaved 
golden  saxifrage :  in  the  dark  and  rocky  hollow 
lanes. 

Gentiana  amarella,  autumnal  gentian,  or  fell- 
wort  :  on  the  Zigzag  and  Hanger. 

Lathrcea  squammaria,  tooth-wort :  in  the  Church 
Litten  Coppice,  under  some  hazels  near  the  foot- 
bridge, in  Trimming's  garden  hedge,  and  on  the 
dry  wall  opposite  Grange  Yard. 

Dipsacus  pilosus,  small  teasel ;  in  the  Short  and 
Long  Lith. 

Lathyrus  sylvestris,  narrow-leaved,  or  wild  lathy- 
rus :  in  the  bushes  at  the  foot  of  the  Short  Lith, 
near  the  path. 

Ophrys  spiralis,  ladies'  traces  :  in  the  Long  Lith, 
and  towards  the  south  corner  of  the  common. 

Ophrys  nidus  avis,  bird's-nest  ophrys :  in  the 
Long  Lith,  under  the  shady  beeches  among  the 
dead  leaves ;  in  Great  Dorton  among  the  bushes, 
and  on  the  Hanger  plentifully. 

Serapias  latifolia,  helleborine :  in  the  High  Wood 
under  the  shady  beeches. 

Daphne  laureola,  spurge  laurel :  in  Selborne 
Hanger  and  the  High  Wood. 

Daphne  mezereum,  the  mezereon  ;  in  Selborne 
P2 


262  NATURAL   HISTORY 

Hanger,  among  the  shrubs  at  the  southeast  end, 
above  the  cottages. 

Lycoperdon  tuber,  truffles :  in  the  Hanger  and 
High  Wood. 

Sambucus  ebulus,  dwarf  elder,  walwort,  or  dane- 
wort :  among  the  rubbish  and  ruined  foundations 
of  the  Priory. 

Of  all  the  propensities  of  plants,  none  seem  more 
strange  than  their  different  periods  of  blossoming. 
Some  produce  their  flowers  in  the  winter,  or  very 
first  dawnings  of  spring  ;  many  when  the  spring  is 
established  ;  some  at  Midsummer,  and  some  not 
till  Autumn.  When  we  see  the  helleborus  foztidus 
and  helleborus  niger  blowing  at  Christmas,  the  hel- 
leborus hyemalis  in  January,  and  the  helleborus  vi- 
ridis  as  soon  as  ever  it  emerges  out  of  the  ground, 
we  do  not  wonder,  because  they  are  kindred  plants 
that  we  expect  should  keep  pace  the  one  with  the 
other ;  but  other  congenerous  vegetables  differ  so 
widely  in  their  time  of  flowering  that  we  cannot 
but  admire.  I  shall  only  instance  at  present  in  the 
crocus  sativus,  the  vernal  and  the  autumnal  crocus, 
which  have  such  an  affinity  that  the  best  botanists 
only  make  them  varieties  of  the  same  genus,  of 
which  there  is  only  one  species,  not  being  able  to 
discern  any  difference  in  the  corolla  or  in  the  in- 
ternal structure.  Yet  the  vernal  crocus  expands 
its  flowers  by  the  beginning  of  March  at  farthest, 
and  often  in  very  rigorous  weather,  and  cannot  be 
retarded  but  by  some  violence  offered  ;  while  the 
autumnal  (the  saffron)  defies  the  influence  of  the 
spring  and  summer,  and  will  not  blow  till  most 
plants  begin  to  fade  and  run  to  seed.  This  circum* 
stance  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  creation,  little 


OF    SELBORNE.  263 

noticed  because  a  common  occurrence  ;  yet  ought 
not  to  be  overlooked  on  account  of  its  being  famil- 
iar, since  it  would  be  as  difficult  to  be  explained 
as  the  most  stupendous  phenomenon  in  nature. 

"  Say,  what  impels,  amid  surrounding  snow 
Congeal'd,  the  crocus'  flamy  bud  to  glow? 
Say,  what  retards,  amid  the  summer's  blaze, 
Th'  autumnal  bulb,  till  pale,  declining  days? 
The  God  of  Seasons,  whose  pervading  power 
Controls  the  sun,  or  sheds  the  fleecy  shower : 
He  bids  each  flower  his  quickening  word  obey, 
Or  to  each  lingering  bloom  enjoins  delay." 


LETTER     XXXVIII. 

11  Omnibus  animalibus  reliquis  certus  et  uniusmodi,  et  in  suo 
cuique  genere  incessus  est ;  aves  sola?  vario  meatu  feruntur,  et 
in  terra,  et  in  aere." — Plin.,  Hist.  Nat.,  lib.  x.,  cap.  38. 

Selborne,  Aug.  7,  1778. 
Dear  Sir, — A  good  ornithologist  should  be  able 
to  distinguish  birds  by  their  air  as  well  as  by  their 
colours  and  shape,  on  the  ground  as  well  as  on  the 
wing,  and  in  the  bush  as  well  as  in  the  hand.  For 
though  it  must  not  be  said  that  every  species  of 
birds  has  a  manner  peculiar  to  itself,  yet  there  is 
somewhat  in  most  genera  at  least  that  at  first  sight 
discriminates  them,  and  enables  a  judicious  observ- 
er to  pronounce  upon  them  with  some  certainty. 
Put  a  bird  in  motion 

"  Et  vera  incessu  patuit." 
Thus  kites  and  buzzards  sail  round  in  circles  with 
wings  expanded  and  motionless ;  and  it  is  from 
their  gliding  manner  that  the  former  are  still  called 
in  the  north  of  England  gleads,  from  the  Saxon 
verb  glidan,  to  glide.     The  kestrel,  or  windhover, 


264  NATURAL   HISTORY 

has  a  peculiar  mode  of  hanging  in  the  air  in  one 
place,  his  wings  all  the  while  being  briskly  agitated. 
Hen-harriers  fly  low  over  heaths  or  fields  of  corn, 
and  beat  the  ground  regularly  like  a  pointer  or  set- 
ting-dog.  Owls  move  in  a  buoyant  manner,  as  if 
lighter  than  the  air  ;  they  seem  to  want  ballast. 
There  is  a  peculiarity  belonging  to  ravens  that 
must  draw  the  attention  even  of  the  most  incurious : 
they  spend  all  their  leisure  time  in  striking  and 
cuffing  each  other  on  the  wing  in  a  kind  of  playful 
skirmish,  and  when  they  move  from  one  place  to 
another,  frequently  turn  on  their  backs  with  a  loud 
croak,  and  seem  to  be  falling  to  the  ground.  When 
this  odd  gesture  betides  them,  they  are  scratching 
themselves  with  one  foot,  and  thus  lose  the  centre 
of  gravity.  Rooks  sometimes  dive  and  tumble  in  a 
frolicsome  manner ;  crows  and  daws  swagger  in 
their  walk  ;  woodpeckers  fly  volatu  undoso,  open- 
ing and  closing  their  wings  at  every  stroke,  and  so 
are  always  rising  or  falling  in  curves.  All  of  this 
genus  use  their  tails,  which  incline  downward,  as  a 
support  while  they  run  up  trees.  Parrots,  like  all 
other  hooked-clawed  birds,  walk  awkwardly,  and 
make  use  of  their  bill  as  a  third  foot,  climbing  and 
descending  with  ridiculous  caution.  All  the  gal- 
Una  parade  and  walk  gracefully,  and  run  nimbly, 
but  fly  with  difficulty,  with  an  impetuous  whirring, 
and  in  a  straight  line.  Magpies  and  jays  flutter 
with  powerless  wings,  and  make  no  despatch : 
herons  seem  encumbered  with  too  much  sail  for 
their  light  bodies ;  but  these  vast  hollow  wings  are 
necessary  in  carrying  burdens,  such  as  large  fishes, 
and  the  like ;  pigeons,  and  particularly  the  sort 
called  smiters,  have  a  way  of  clashing  their  wings 


OF   SELBORNE.  265 

the  one  against  the  other  over  their  backs  with  a 
loud  snap  ;  another  variety,  called  tumblers,  turn 
themselves  over  in  the  air.  Some  birds  have  move- 
ments peculiar  to  the  seasons ;  thus  ring-doves, 
though  strong  and  rapid  at  other  times,  yet  in  the 
spring  hang  about  on  the  wing  in  a  playful  manner  ; 
thus  the  cock  snipe,  forgetting  his  former  flight, 
fans  the  air  like  the  windhover  ;  and  the  green 
finch,  in  particular,  exhibits  such  languishing  and 
faltering  gestures  as  to  appear  like  a  wounded  and 
dying  bird ;  the  kingfisher  darts  along  like  an  ar- 
row ;  fern-owls,  or  goat-suckers,  glance  in  the  dusk 
over  the  tops  of  trees  like  a  meteor ;  starlings,  as 
it  were,  swim  along,  while  missel-thrushes  use  a 
wild  and  desultory  flight ;  swallows  sweep  over  the 
surface  of  the  ground  and  water,  and  distinguish 
themselves  by  rapid  turns  and  quick  evolutions ; 
swifts  dash  round  in  circles ;  and  the  bank-martin 
moves  with  frequent  vacillations  like  a  butterfly. 
Most  of  the  small  birds  fly  by  jerks,  rising  and  fall- 
ing as  they  advance-  Most  small  birds  hop ;  but 
wagtails  and  larks  walk,  moving  their  legs  alter- 
nately. Skylarks  rise  and  fall  perpendicularly  as 
they  sing ;  woodlarks  hang  poised  in  the  air  ;  and 
titlarks  rise  and  fall  in  large  curves,  singing  in 
their  descent.  The  whitethroat  uses  odd  jerks  and 
gesticulations  over  the  tops  of  hedges  and  bushes. 
All  the  duck  kind  waddle  ;  divers  and  auks  walk 
as  if  fettered,  and  stand  erect  on  their  tails ;  these 
are  the  compedes  of  Linnaeus.  Geese  and  cranes, 
and  most  wild  fowls,  move  in  figured  flights,  often 
changing  their  position.  The  secondary  remiges 
of  Tringse,  wild  ducks,  and  some  others,  are  very 
long,  and  give  their  wings,  when  in  rltetion,  a  hook- 

Z 


266  NATURAL   HISTORY 

ed  appearance.  Dab-chicks,  moor-hens,  and  coots 
fly  erect,  with  their  legs  hanging  down,  and  hardly 
make  any  despatch  ;  the  reason  is  plain,  their  wings 
are  placed  too  forward  out  of  the  true  centre  of 
gravity,  as  the  legs  of  auks  and  divers  are  situated 
too  backward. 


LETTER     XXXIX. 

Selborne,  Sept.  9,  1778. 

Dear  Sir, — From  the  motion  of  birds,  the  tran- 
sition is  natural  enough  to  their  notes  and  language, 
of  which  1  shall  say  something.  Not  that  I  would 
pretend  to  understand  their  language  like  the  vizier, 
who,  by  the  recital  of  a  conversation  which  passed 
between  two  owls,  reclaimed  a  sultan,*  before  de- 
lighting in  conquest  and  devastation ;  but  I  would 
be  thought  only  to  mean  that  many  of  the  winged 
tribes  have  various  sounds  and  voices  adapted  to 
express  their  various  passions,  wants,  and  feelings, 
such  as  anger,  fear,  love,  hatred,  hunger,  and  the 
like.  All  species  are  not  equally  eloquent ;  some 
are  copious  and  fluent,  as  it  were,  in  their  utter- 
ance, while  others  are  confined  to  a  few  important 
sounds  ;  no  bird,  like  the  fish  kind,  is  quite  mute, 
though  some  are  rather  silent.  The  language  of 
birds  is  very  ancient,  and,  like  other  ancient  modes 
of  speech,  very  elliptical;  little  is  said,  but  much 
is  meant  and  understood. 

The  notes  of  the  eagle  kind  are  shrill  and  pier- 
cing, and,  about  the  season  of  nidification,  much  di- 
*#ee  Spectator,  vol.  vii.,  No.  512. 


OF    SELBORNE.  267 

versified,  as  I  have  been  often  assured  by  a  curious 
observer  of  Nature,  who  long  resided  at  Gibraltar, 
where  eagles  abound.  The  notes  of  our  hawks 
much  resemble  those  of  the  king  of  birds.  Owls 
have  very  expressive  notes ;  they  hoot  in  a  fine 
vocal  sound,  much  resembling  the  vox  humana,  and 
reducible  by  a  pitch-pipe  to  a  musical  key.  This 
note  seems  to  express  complacency  and  rivalry 
among  the  mates  :  they  use  also  a  quick  call  and  a 
horrible  scream,  and  can  snore  and  hiss  when  they 
mean  to  menace.  Ravens,  besides  their  loud  croak, 
can  exert  a  deep  and  solemn  note  that  makes  the 
woods  to  echo  ;  the  sound  of  a  crow  is  strange  and 
ridiculous ;  rooks,  in  the  hatching  season,  attempt 
sometimes,  in  the  gayety  of  their  hearts,  to  sing, 
but  with  no  great  success ;  the  parrot  kind  have 
many  modulations  of  voice,  as  appears  by  their 
aptitude  to  learn  human  sounds  ;  doves  coo  in  a 
mournful  manner,  and  are  emblems  of  despairing 
lovers ;  the  woodpecker  sets  up  a  sort  of  loud  and 
hearty  laugh  ;  the  fern-owl,  or  goat-sucker,  from 
the  dusk  till  daybreak,  serenades  his  mate  with  the 
clattering  of  castanets.  All  the  tuneful  passeres 
express  their  complacency  by  sweet  modulations 
and  a  variety  of  melody.  The  swallow,  as  has 
been  observed  in  a  former  letter,  by  a  shrill  alarm, 
bespeaks  the  attention  of  the  other  hirundines,  and 
bids  them  be  aware  that  the  hawk  is  at  hand. 
Aquatic  and  gregarious  birds,  especially  the  noc- 
turnal, that  shift  their  quarters  in  the  dark,  are  very 
noisy  and  loquacious  ;  as  cranes,  wild  geese,  wild 
ducks,  and  the  like ;  their  perpetual  clamour  pre- 
vents them  from  dispersing  and  losing  their  com- 
panions. 


268  NATURAL   HISTORY 

In  so  extensive  a  subject,  sketches  and  outlines 
are  as  much  as  can  be  expected,  for  it  would  be 
endless  to  instance  in  all  the  infinite  variety  of  the 
feathered  nation.  We  shall  therefore  confine  the 
remainder  of  this  letter  to  the  few  domestic  fowls 
of  our  yards,  which  are  most  known,  and,  therefore, 
best  understood.  And,  first,  the  peacock,  with  his 
gorgeous  train,  demands  our  attention  ;  but,  like 
most  of  the  gaudy  birds,  his  notes  are  grating  and 
shocking  to  the  ear  :  the  yelling  of  cats,  and  the 
braying  of  an  ass,  are  not  more  disgustful.  The 
voice  of  the  goose  is  trumpet-like  and  clanking, 
and  once  saved  the  Capitol  at  Rome,  as  grave  his- 
torians assert :  the  hiss  also  of  the  gander  is  for- 
midable and  full  of  menace,  and  "  protective  of  his 
young."  Among  ducks  the  distinction  of  voice  is 
remarkable ;  for  while  the  quack  of  the  female  is 
loud  and  sonorous,  the  voice  of  the  drake  is  inward, 
and  harsh,  and  feeble,  and  scarce  discernible.  The 
cock  turkey  struts  and  gobbles  to  the  hen  in  a  most 
uncouth  manner ;  he  hath  also  a  pert  and  petulant 
note  when  he  attacks  his  adversary.  When  a  hen 
turkey  leads  forth  her  young  brood,  she  keeps  a 
watchful  eye  ;  and  if  a  bird  of  prey  appear,  though 
ever  so  high  in  the  air,  the  careful  mother  announ- 
ces the  enemy  with  a  little  inward  moan,  and 
watches  him  with  a  steady  and  attentive  look  ;  but 
if  he  approach,  her  note  becomes  earnest  and 
alarming,  and  her  outcries  are  redoubled. 

No  inhabitants  of  a  yard  seem  possessed  of  such 
a  variety  of  expression  and  so  copious  a  language 
as  common  poultry.  Take  a  chicken  of  four  or 
five  days  old,  and  hold  it  up  to  a  window  where 
there  are  flies,  and  it  will  immediately  seize  its  prey 


OF    SELBORNE.  269 

with  little  twitterings  of  complacency;  but  if  you 
tender  it  a  wasp  or  a  bee,  at  once  its  note  becomes 
harsh  and  expressive  of  disapprobation  and  a  sense 
of  danger.  When  a  pullet  is  ready  to  lay,  she  in- 
timates the  event  by  a  joyous  and  easy  soft  note. 
Of  all  the  occurrences  of  their  life,  that  of  laying 
seems  to  be  the  most  important :  for  no  sooner  has 
a  hen  disburdened  herself,  than  she  rushes  forth 
with  a  clamorous  kind  of  joy,  which  the  cock  and 
the  rest  of  his  hens  immediately  adopt.  The  tu- 
mult is  not  confined  to  the  family  concerned,  but 
catches  from  yard  to  yard,  and  spreads  to  every 
homestead  within  hearing,  till  at  last  the  whole  vil- 
lage is  in  an  uproar.  As  soon  as  a  hen  becomes  a 
mother,  her  new  relation  demands  a  new  language  : 
she  runs  clucking  and  screaming  about,  and  seems 
agitated  as  if  possessed.  The  father  of  the  flock 
has  also  a  considerable  vocabulary ;  if  he  finds 
food,  he  calls  a  favourite  to  partake  ;  and  if  a  bird 
of  prey  passes  over,  with  a  warning  voice  he  bids 
his  family  beware.  The  gallant  chanticleer  has  at 
command  his  affectionate  phrases  and  his  terms  of 
defiance.  But  the  sound  by  which  he  is  best  known 
is  his  crowing :  by  this  he  has  been  distinguished  in 
all  ages  as  the  countryman's  clock  or  'larum,  as  the 
watchman  that  proclaims  the  divisions  of  the  night. 
Thus  the  poet  elegantly  styles  him 

"  The  crested  cock,  whose  clarion  sounds 
The  silent  hours." 

A  neighbouring  gentleman  one  summer  had  lost 
most  of  his  chickens  by  a  sparrow-hawk,  that  came 
gliding  down  between  a  fagot-pile  and  the  end  of 
his  house  to  the  place  where  the  coops  stood.    The 

Z2 


270  NATURAL   HISTORY 

owner,  inwardly  vexed  to  see  his  flock  thus  dimin- 
ishing, hung  a  setting  net  adroitly  between  the  pile 
and  the  house,  into  which  the  caitiff  dashed  and 
was  entangled.  Resentment  suggested  the  law  of 
retaliation  ;  he  therefore  clipped  the  hawk's  wings, 
cut  off  his  talons,  and,  fixing  a  cork  on  his  bill, 
threw  him  down  among  the  brood  hens.  Imagi- 
nation cannot  paint  the  scene  that  ensued  ;  the  ex- 
pressions that  fear,  rage,  and  revenge  inspired  were 
new,  or,  at  least,  such  as  had  been  unnoticed  before. 
The  exasperated  matrons  upbraided,  they  execra- 
ted, they  insulted,  they  triumphed.  In  a  word,  they 
never  desisted  from  buffeting  their  adversary  till 
they  had  torn  him  in  a  hundred  pieces.* 

*  Many  creatures  are  endowed  with  a  ready  discernment  to 
see  what  will  turn  to  their  own  advantage  and  emolument,  and 
often  discover  more  sagacity  than  would  be  expected.  Thus  my 
neighbour's  poultry  watch  for  wagons  loaded  with  wheat,  and, 
running  after  them,  pick  up  a  number  of  grains  which  are  sha- 
ken from  the  sheaves  by  the  agitation  of  the  carriages.  Thus, 
when  my  brother  used  to  take  down  his  gun  to  shoot  sparrows, 
his  cats  would  run  out  before  him,  to  be  ready  to  catch  up  the 
birds  as  they  fell. 

The  earnest  and  early  propensity  of  the  gallina?  to  roost  on 
high  is  very  observable,  and  discovers  a  strong  dread  impressed 
on  their  spirits  respecting  vermin  that  may  annoy  them  on  the 
ground  during  the  hours  of  darkness.  Hence  poultry,  if  left  to 
themselves  and  not  housed,  will  perch,  the  winter  through,  on 
yew-trees  and  fir-trees;  and  turkeys  and  guinea-fowls,  heavy 
as  they  are,  get  up  into  apple-trees  ;  pheasants  also,  in  woods, 
sleep  on  trees  to  avoid  foxes ;  while  peafowls  climb  to  the  tops 
of  the  highest  trees  round  their  owner's  house  for  security,  let 
the  weather  be  ever  so  cold  or  blowing.  Partridges,  it  is  true, 
roost  on  the  ground,  not  having  the  faculty  of  perching ;  but  then 
the  same  fear  prevails  in  their  minds  ;  for,  through  apprehen- 
sions from  polecats  and  stoats,  they  never  trust  themselves  to 
coverts,  but  nestle  together  in  the  midst  of  large  fields,  far  re- 
moved from  hedges  and  coppices,  which  they  love  to  haunt  in 
the  day,  and  where  at  that  season  they  can  skulk  more  secure 
from  the  ravages  of  rapacious  birds. 

As  to  ducks  and  geese,  their  awkward  splay  web  feet  forbid 


OF    SELBORNE.  271 


LETTER    XL. 

Selborne. 

"       ********      Monstrent 
********** 

Quid  tantum  Oceano  properent  se  tingere  soles 
Hyberni ;  vel  qua*  tardis  mora  noctibus  obstet." 

Gentlemen  who  have  outlets  might  contrive  to 
make  ornament  subservient  to  utility ;  a  pleasing 
eyetrap  might  also  contribute  to  promote  science ; 
an  obelisk  in  a  garden  or  park  might  be  both  an 
embellishment  and  a  heliotrope. 

Any  person  that  is  curious,  and  enjoys  the  ad- 
vantage of  a  good  horizon,  might,  with  little 
trouble,  make  two  heliotropes,  the  one  for  the  win- 
ter, the  other  for  the  summer  solstice  ;  and  these 
two  erections  might  be  constructed  with  very  little 
expense,  for  two  pieces  of  timber  framework  about 
ten  or  twelve  feet  high,  and  four  feet  broad  at  the 
base,  and  close  lined  with  plank,  would  answer  the 
purpose. 

The  erection  for  the  former  should,  if  possible, 
be  placed  within  sight  of  some  window  in  the  com- 
mon sitting  parlour,  because  men,  at  that  dead  sea- 
son of  the  year,  are  usually  within  doors  at  the 
close  of  the  day  ;  while  that  for  the  latter  might  be 
fixed  for  any  given  spot  in  the  garden  or  outlet, 
whence  the  owner  might  contemplate,  in  a  fine 
summer's  evening,  the  utmost  extent  that  the  sun 

them  to  settle  on  trees ;  they  therefore,  in  the  hours  of  darkness 
and  danger,  betake  themselves  to  their  own  element,  the  water, 
where,  amid  large  lakes  and  pools,  like  ships  riding  at  anchor, 
they  float  the  whole  night  long  in  peace  and  security. — White's 
Observations  on  Birds. 


272  NATURAL   HISTORY 

makes  to  the  northward  at  the  season  of  the  long- 
est days.  Now  nothing  would  be  necessary  but 
to  place  these  two  objects  with  so  much  exactness, 
that  the  westerly  limb  of  the  sun,  at  setting,  might 
but  just  clear  the  winter  heliotrope  to  the  west  of 
it  on  the  shortest  day,  and  that  the  whole  disk  of 
the  sun,  at  the  longest  day,  might  exactly,  at  set- 
ting, also  clear  the  summer  heliotrope  to  the  north 
of  it. 

By  this  simple  expedient  it  would  soon  appear 
that  there  is  no  such  thing,  strictly  speaking,  as  a 
solstice ;  for,  from  the  shortest  day,  the  owner 
would,  every  clear  evening,  see  the  disk  advancing, 
at  its  setting,  to  the  westward  of  the  object ;  and, 
from  the  longest  day,  observe  the  sun  retiring  back- 
ward every  evening,  at  its  setting,  towards  the  ob- 
ject westward,  till  in  a  few  nights  it  would  set  quite 
behind  it,  and  so  by  degrees  to  the  west  of  it ;  for 
when  the  sun  comes  near  the  summer  solstice,  the 
whole  disk  of  it  would  at  first  set  behind  the  object ; 
after  a  time  the  northern  limb  would  first  appear, 
and  so  every  night  gradually  more,  till  at  length 
the  whole  diameter  would  set  northward  of  it  for 
about  three  nights,  but  on  the  middle  night  of  the 
three  sensibly  more  remote  than  the  former  or  fol- 
lowing. When  beginning  its  recess  from  the  sum, 
mer  tropic,  it  would  continue  more  and  more  to  be 
hidden  every  night,  till  at  length  it  would  descend 
quite  behind  the  object  again,  and  so  nightly  more 
and  more  to  the  westward. 


OF    SELBORNE.  273 


LETTER    XL  I. 


Selborne. 


"       *       *      *  *   Mugire  videbis  ■ 

Sub  pedibus  terrain,  et  descendere  montibus  ornos." 

When  I  was  a  boy  I  used  to  read,  with  astonish- 
ment and  implicit  assent,  accounts  in  Baker's 
Chronicle  of  walking  hills  and  travelling  mount- 
ains.  John  Philips,  in  his  Cider,  alludes  to  the 
credit  that  was  given  to  such  stories  with  a  delicate 
but  quaint  vein  of  humour  peculiar  to  the  author 
of  the  Splendid  Shilling. 

"  I  nor  advise,  nor  reprehend,  the  choice 
Of  Marclay  Hill ;  the  apple  nowhere  finds 
A  kinder  mould  :  yet  'tis  unsafe  to  trust 
Deceitful  ground  :  who  knows  but  that,  once  more, 
This  mount  may  journey,  and,  his  present  site 
Forsaking,  to  thy  neighbour's  bounds  transfer 
Thy  goodly  plants,  affording  matter  strange 
For  law  debates !" 

But,  when  I  came  to  consider  better,  I  began  to 
suspect  that  though  our  hills  may  never  have  jour- 
neyed far,  yet  that  the  ends  of  many  of  them  have 
slipped  and  fallen  away  at  distant  periods,  leaving 
the  cliffs  bare  and  abrupt.  This  seems  to  have 
been  the  case  with  Nore  and  Whetham  Hills,  and 
especially  with  the  ridge  between  Harteley  Park 
and  Ward-le-ham,  where  the  ground  has  slid  into 
vast  swellings  and  furrows,  and  lies  still  in  such 
romantic  confusion  as  cannot  be  accounted  for 
from  any  other  cause.  A  strange  event,  that  hap- 
pened not  long  since,  justifies  our  suspicions  ; 
which,  though  it  befell  not  within  the  limits  of  this 
parish,  yet  as  it  was  within  the  hundred  of  Sel- 


274  NATURAL   HISTORY 

borne,  and  as  the  circumstances  were  singular, 
may  fairly  claim  a  place  in  a  work  of  this  nature. 
The  months  of  January  and  February,  in  the 
year  1774,  were  remarkable  for  great  melting 
snows  and  vast  gluts  of  rain,  so  that  by  the  end  of 
the  latter  month  the  land-springs  or  levants  began 
to  prevail,  and  to  be  near  as  high  as  in  the  memo- 
rable winter  of  1764.  The  beginning  of  March 
also  went  on  in  the  same  tenour,  when,  in  the  night 
between  the  8th  and  9th  of  that  month,  a  consider- 
able part  of  the  great  woody  hanger  at  Hawkley 
was  torn  from  its  place,  and  fell  down,  leaving  a 
high  freestone  cliff  naked  and  bare,  and  resembling 
the  steep  side  of  a  chalk-pit.  It  appears  that  this 
huge  fragment,  being  perhaps  sapped  and  under- 
mined by  waters,  foundered,  and  was  ingulfed, 
going  down  in  a  perpendicular  direction ;  for  a 
gate  which  stood  in  the  field  on  the  top  of  the  hill, 
after  sinking  with  its  posts  for  thirty  or  forty  feet, 
remained  in  so  true  and  upright  a  position  as  to 
open  and  shut  with  great  exactness,  just  as  in  its 
first  situation.  Several  oaks  also  are  still  standing, 
and  in  a  state  of  vegetation,  after  taking  the  same 
desperate  leap.  That  great  part  of  this  prodigious 
mass  was  absorbed  in  some  gulf  below  is  plain  also 
from  the  inclining  ground  at  the  bottom  of  the  hill, 
which  is  free  and  unencumbered,  but  would  have 
been  buried  in  heaps  of  rubbish  had  the  fragment 
parted  and  fallen  forward.  About  a  hundred  yards 
from  the  foot  of  this  hanging  coppice  stood  a  cot- 
tage by  the  side  of  a  lane  ;  and  two  hundred  yards 
lower,  on  the  other  side  of  the  lane,  was  a  farm- 
house, in  which  lived  a  labourer  and  his  family ; 
and  just  by,  a  stout  new  barn.     The  cottage  was 


OF    SELBORNE.  275 

inhabited  by  an  old  woman,  her  son,  and  his  wife. 
These  people,  in  the  evening,  which  was  very  dark 
and  tempestuous,  observed  that  the  brick  floors  of 
their  kitchen  began  to  heave  and  part,  and  that  the 
walls  seemed  to  open  and  the  roofs  to  crack  ;  but 
they  all  agree  that  no  tremour  of  the  ground  indi- 
cating an  earthquake  was  ever  felt,  only  that  the 
wind  continued  to  make  a  most  tremendous  roaring 
in  the  woods  and  hangers.  The  miserable  inhab- 
itants, not  daring  to  go  to  bed,  remained  in  the  ut- 
most solicitude  and  confusion,  expecting  every  mo- 
ment to  be  buried  under  the  ruins  of  their  shattered 
edifices.  When  daylight  came,  they  were  at  lei- 
sure to  contemplate  the  devastations  of  the  night. 
They  then  found  that  a  deep  rift  or  chasm  had 
opened  under  their  houses,  and  torn  them,  as  it 
were,  in  two,  and  that  one  end  of  the  barn  had  suf- 
fered in  a  similar  manner  ;  that  a  pond  near  the 
cottage  had  undergone  a  strange  reverse,  becoming 
deep  at  the  shallow  end,  and  so  vice  versa ;  that 
many  large  oaks  were  removed  out  of  their  perpen- 
dicular, some  thrown  down,  and  some  fallen  into 
the  heads  of  neighbouring  trees  ;  and  that  a  gate 
was  thrust  forward,  with  its  hedge,  full  six  feet,  so 
as  to  require  a  new  track  to  be  made  to  it.  From 
the  foot  of  the  cliff  the  general  course  of  the  ground, 
which  is  pasture,  inclines  in  a  moderate  descent  for 
half  a  mile,  and  is  interspersed  with  some  hillocks, 
which  were  rifted  in  every  direction,  as  well  to- 
wards the  great  woody  hanger  as  from  it.  In  the 
first  pasture  the  deep  clefts  began,  and,  running 
across  the  lane  and  under  the  buildings,  made  such 
vast  shelves  that  the  road  was  impassable  for  some 
time ;  and  so  over  to  an  arable  field  on  the  other 


276  NATURAL   HISTORY 

side,  which  was  strangely  torn  and  disordered. 
The  second  pasture-field,  being  more  soft  and 
springy,  was  protruded  forward  without  many  fis- 
sures in  the  turf,  which  was  raised  in  long  ridges 
resembling  graves,  lying  at  right  angles  to  the  mo- 
tion. At  the  bottom  of  this  enclosure,  the  soil  and 
turf  rose  many  feet  against  the  bodies  of  some  oaks, 
that  obstructed  their  farther  course  and  terminated 
this  awful  commotion. 

The  perpendicular  height  of  the  precipice,  in 
general,  is  twenty-three  yards  ;  the  length  of  the 
lapse  or  slip,  as  seen  from  the  fields  below,  one 
hundred  and  eighty-one ;  and  a  partial  fall,  con- 
cealed in  the  coppice,  extends  seventy  yards  more ; 
so  that  the  total  length  of  this  fragment  that  fell 
was  two  hundred  and  fifty-one  yards.  About  fifty 
acres  of  land  suffered  from  this  violent  convulsion  ; 
two  houses  were  entirely  destroyed  ;  one  end  of  a 
new  barn  was  left  in  ruins,  the  walls  being  cracked 
through  the  very  stones  that  composed  them ;  a 
hanging  coppice  was  changed  to  a  naked  rock  ; 
and  some  grass-grounds  and  an  arable  field  so  bro- 
ken and  rifted  by  the  chasms  as  to  be  rendered  for 
a  time  neither  fit  for  the  plough  nor  safe  for  pastu- 
rage, till  considerable  labour  and  expense  had  been 
bestowed  in  levelling  the  surface  and  filling  in  the 
gaping  fissures. 


OF    SELBORNE.  277 

LETTER    XLII. 

Selborne. 
"  Resonant  arbusta." 

There  is  a  steep,  abrupt  pasture-field,  inter- 
spersed with  furze,  close  to  the  back  of  this  village, 
well  known  by  the  name  of  the  Short  Lithe,  con- 
sisting of  a  rocky,  dry  soil,  and  inclining  to  the  af- 
ternoon sun.  This  spot  abounds  with  the  gryllus 
campestris,  or  field -cricket,*  which,  though  frequent 
in  these  parts,  is  by  no  means  a  common  insect  in 
many  other  counties. 

As  their  cheerful  summer  cry  cannot  but  draw 
the  attention  of  a  naturalist,  I  have  often  gone 
down  to  examine  the  economy  of  these  grylli,  and 
study  their  mode  of  life  ;  but  they  are  so  shy  and 
cautious  that  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  get  a  sight  of 
them  ;  for,  feeling  a  person's  footsteps  as  he  ad- 
vances, they  stop  short  in  the  midst  of  their  song, 
and  retire  backward  nimbly  into  their  burrows, 
where  they  lurk  till  all  suspicion  of  danger  is  over. 

At  first  we  attempted  to  dig  them  out  with  a 
spade,  but  without  any  great  success ;  for  either 
we  could  not  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  hole,  which 
often  terminated  under  a  great  stone ;  or  else,  in 
breaking  up  the  ground,  we  inadvertently  squeezed 
the  poor  insect  to  death.  We  took  a  multitude 
of  eggs,  which  were  long  and  narrow,  of  a  yellow 
colour,  and  covered  with  a  very  tough  skin.  By 
this  accident  we  learned  to  distinguish  the  male 
from  the  female,  the  former  of  which  is  shining 

*  Acheta  campestris,  Fabricius. 

Aa 


278  NATURAL   HISTORY 

black,  with  a  golden  stripe  across  his  shoulders ;  the 
latter  is  more  dusky,  and  carries  a  long  sword, 
shaped  weapon  at  her  tail,  which  probably  is  the 
instrument  with  which  she  deposites  her  eggs  in 
crannies  and  safe  receptacles. 

Where  violent  methods  will  not  avail,  more 
gentle  means  will  often  succeed  ;  and  so  it  proved 
in  the  present  case ;  for,  though  a  spade  be  too 
boisterous  and  rough  an  implement,  a  pliant  stalk 
of  grass,  gently  insinuated  into  the  caverns,  will 
probe  their  windings  to  the  bottom,  and  quickly 
bring  out  the  inhabitant,  and  thus  the  humane 
inquirer  may  gratify  his  curiosity  without  injuring 
the  object  of  it.  It  is  remarkable,  that  though 
these  insects  are  furnished  with  long  legs  behind, 
and  brawny  thighs  for  leaping,  like  grasshoppers, 
yet  when  driven  from  their  holes  they  show  no 
activity,  but  crawl  along  in  a  shiftless  manner,  so 
as  easily  to  be  taken  ;  and  again,  though  provided 
with  a  curious  apparatus  of  wings,  yet  they  never 
exert  them  when  there  seems  to  be  the  greatest 
occasion.  The  males  only  make  that  shrilling 
noise,  perhaps  out  of  rivalry  and  emulation  ;  it  is 
raised  by  a  brisk  friction  of  one  wing  against  the 
other.  They  are  solitary  beings,  living  singly  male 
or  female,  each  as  it  may  happen.  When  the  males 
meet  they  will  fight  fiercely,  as  I  found  by  some 
which  I  put  into  the  crevices  of  a  dry  stone  wall, 
where  I  should  have  been  glad  to  have  made  them 
settle.  For,  though  they  seemed  distressed  by 
being  taken  out  of  their  knowledge,  yet  the  first 
that  got  possession  of  the  chinks  would  seize  on 
any  that  were  obtruded  upon  them  with  a  vast  row 
of  serrated  fangs.     With  their  strong  jaws,  toothed 


OF    SELBORNE.  279 

like  the  shears  of  a  lobster's  claws,  they  perforate 
and  round  their  curious  regular  cells,  having  no 
fore-claws  to  dig  like  the  mole-cricket.  When 
taken  in  hand  I  could  not  but  wonder  that  they 
never  offered  to  defend  themselves,  though  armed 
with  such  formidable  weapons.  Of  such  herbs  as 
grow  before  the  mouths  of  their  burrows  they  eat 
indiscriminately,  and  on  a  little  platform  which  they 
make  just  by  they  drop  their  dung,  and  never  in 
the  daytime  seem  to  stir  more  than  two  or  three 
inches  from  home.  Sitting  in  the  entrance  of  their 
caverns,  they  chirp  all  night  as  well  as  day,  from 
the  middle  of  the  month  of  May  to  the  middle  of 
July  ;  and  in  hot  weather,  when  they  are  most 
vigorous,  they  make  the  hills  echo  ;  and,  in  the  still 
hours  of  darkness,  may  be  heard  to  a  considerable 
distance.  In  the  beginning  of  the  season  their  notes 
are  more  faint  and  inward,  but  become  louder  as 
the  summer  advances,  and  so  die  away  again  by 
degrees. 

Sounds  do  not  always  give  us  pleasure  according 
to  their  sweetness  and  melody,  nor  do  harsh  sounds 
always  displease.  We  are  more  apt  to  be  capti- 
vated or  disgusted  with  the  associations  which  thev 
promote  than  with  the  notes  themselves.  Thus  the 
shrilling  of  the  field-cricket,  though  sharp  and  strid- 
ulus, yet  marvellously  delights  some  hearers,  fill- 
ing their  minds  with  a  train  of  summer  ideas  of  ev- 
erything that  is  rural,  verdurous,  and  joyous. 

About  the  10th  of  March  the  crickets  appear  at 
the  mouths  of  their  cells,  which  they  then  open  and 
bore,  and  shape  very  elegantly.  All  that  ever  I 
have  seen  at  that  season  were  in  their  pupa  state, 
and  had  only  the  rudiments  of  wings  lying  under  b, 


280  NATURAL   HISTORY 

skin  or  coat,  which  must  be  cast  before  the  insect 
can  arrive  at  its  perfect  state,*  from  whence  I 
should  suppose  that  the  old  ones  of  last  year  do 
not  always  survive  the  winter.  In  August  their 
holes  begin  to  be  obliterated,  and  the  insects  are 
seen  no  more  till  spring. 

Not  many  summers  ago  I  endeavoured  to  trans- 
plant a  colony  to  the  terrace  in  my  garden,  by  bo- 
ring deep  holes  in  the  sloping  turf.  The  new  in- 
habitants stayed  some  time,  and  fed  and  sung  ;  but 
wandered  away  by  degrees,  and  were  heard  at  a 
farther  distance  every  morning ;  so  that  it  appears 
that  on  this  emergency  they  made  use  of  their 
wings  in  attempting  to  return  to  the  spot  from 
which  they  were  taken. 

One  of  these  crickets,  when  confined  in  a  paper 
cage  and  set  in  the  sun,  and  supplied  with  plants 
moistened  with  water,  will  feed  and  thrive,  and 
become  so  merry  and  loud  as  to  be  irksome  in  the 
same  room  where  a  person  is  sitting :  if  the  plants 
are  not  wetted,  it  will  die. 


LETTER    XLIII. 

Selborne. 

Dear  Sir, — 

"  Far  from  all  resort  of  mirth 
Save  the  cricket  on  the  hearth." 

Milton's  II  Penseroso. 

While  many  other  insects  must  be  sought  after 
in  fields,  and  wood,  and  waters,  the  gryllus  domes. 

*  We  have  observed  that  they  cast  these  skins  in  April,  which 
are  then  seen  lying  at  the  mouths  of  their  holes. 


OP    SELBORNE.  281 

Ucus,  or  House-cricket,  resides  altogether  within 


our  dwellings,  intruding  itself  upon  our  notice 
whether  we  will  or  no.  This  species  delights  in 
new-built  houses,  being,  like  the  spider,  pleased  with 
the  moisture  of  the  walls  ;  and,  besides,  the  softness 
of  the  mortar  enables  them  to  burrow  and  mine  be- 
tween the  joints  of  the  bricks  or  stones,  and  to  open 
communications  from  one  room  to  another.  They 
are  particularly  fond  of  kitchens  and  bakers'  ovens, 
on  account  of  their  perpetual  warmth.* 

Tender  insects  that  live  abroad  either  enjoy  only 
the  short  period  of  one  summer,  or  else  doze  away 
the  cold,  uncomfortable  months  in  profound  slum- 
bers ;  but  these,  residing  as  it  were  in  a  torrid 
zone,  are  always  alert  and  merry  ;  a  good  Christ- 
mas fire  is  to  them  like  the  heats  of  the  dogdays. 
Though  they  are  frequently  heard  by  day,  yet  is 
their  natural  time  of  motion  only  in  the  night. 
As  soon  as  it  grows  dusk  the  chirping  increases, 
and  they  come  running  forth,  and  are  from  the  size 

*  When  house-crickets  are  out  and  running  about  in  a  room 
in  the  night,  if  surprised  by  a  candle,  they  give  two  or  three  shrill 
notes,  as  it  were  for  a  signal  to  their  fellows,  that  they  may  es- 
cape to  their  crannies  and  lurking  holes,  to  avoid  danger. 
A  a2 


282  NATURAL  HISTORY 

of  a  flea  to  that  of  their  full  stature.  As  one 
should  suppose,  from  the  burning  atmosphere  which 
they  inhabit,  they  are  a  thirsty  race,  and  show  a 
great  propensity  for  liquids,  being  found  frequently 
drowned  in  pans  of  water,  milk,  broth,  or  the  like. 
Whatever  is  moist  they  affect ;  and,  therefore, 
often  gnaw  holes  in  wet  woollen  stockings  and 
aprons  that  are  hung  to  the  fire ;  they  are  the 
housewife's  barometer,  foretelling  her  when  it  will 
rain  ;  and  are  prognostics  sometimes,  she  thinks, 
of  ill  or  good  luck  ;  of  the  death  of  a  near  relation, 
or  the  approach  of  an  absent  lover.  By  being  the 
constant  companions  of  her  solitary  hours,  they 
naturally  become  the  objects  of  her  superstition. 
These  crickets  are  not  only  very  thirsty,  but  very 
voracious ;  for  they  will  eat  the  scummings  of  pots, 
and  yeast,  salt,  and  crumbs  of  bread,  and  any 
kitchen  offal  or  sweepings.  In  the  summer  we 
have  observed  them  to  fly,  when  it  became  dusk, 
out  of  the  windows  and  over  the  neighbouring 
roofs.  This  feat  of  activity  accounts  for  the  sud- 
den manner  in  which  they  often  leave  their  haunts, 
as  it  does  for  the  method  by  which  they  come  to 
houses  where  they  were  not  known  before.  It  is 
remarkable  that  many  sorts  of  insects  seem  never 
to  use  their  wings  but  when  they  have  a  mind  to 
shift  their  quarters  and  settle  new  colonies.  When 
in  the  air  they  move  volatu  undoso,  in  waves  or 
curves,  like  woodpeckers,  opening  and  shutting 
their  wings  at  every  stroke,  and  so  are  always  ri- 
sing or  sinking. 

When  they  increase  to  a  great  degree,  as  they 
did  once  in  the  house  where  I  am  now  writing, 
they  become  noisome  pests,  flying  into  the  candles 


OF   SELBORNE.  283 

and  dashing  into  people's  faces,  but  may  be  blasted 
and  destroyed  by  gunpowder  discharged  into  their 
crevices  and  crannies.  In  families,  at  such  times, 
they  are,  like  Pharaoh's  plague  of  frogs,  "  in  their 
bedchambers,  and  upon  their  beds,  and  in  their 
ovens,  and  in  their  kneading  troughs."*  Their 
shrilling  noise  is  occasioned  by  a  brisk  attrition  of 
their  wings.  Cats  catch  hearth-crickets,  and,  play- 
ing with  them  as  they  do  with  mice,  devour  them. 
Crickets  may  be  destroyed  like  wasps,  by  vials  half 
filled  with  beer  or  any  liquid,  and  set  in  their 
haunts  ;  for,  being  always  eager  to  drink,  they  will 
crowd  in  till  the  bottles  are  full. 


LETTER    XL  IV. 

Selborne. 
How  diversified  are  the  modes  of  life,  not  only 
of  incongruous,  but  even  of  congenerous  animals  ; 
and  yet  their  specific  distinctions  are  not  more  va- 
rious than  their  propensities.  Thus,  while  the 
field-cricket  delights  in  sunny,  dry  banks,  and  the 
house-cricket  rejoices  amid  the  glowing  heat  of  the 
kitchen  hearth  or  oven,  the  gryllus  gryllotalpa  (the 
mole-cricket)  haunts  moist  meadows,  and  frequents 
the  sides  of  ponds  and  banks  of  streams,  perform- 
ing all  its  functions  in  a  swampy,  wet  soil.  With 
a  pair  of  fore  feet  curiously  adapted  to  the  purpose, 
it  burrows  and  works  under  ground  like  the  mole, 
raising  a  ridge  as  it  proceeds,  but  seldom  throwing 
up  hillocks. 

*  Exod.,  viii.,  3. 


284  NATURAL    HISTORY 

As  mole-crickets  often  infest  gardens  by  the 
sides  of  canals,  they  are  unwelcome  guests  to  the 
gardener,  raising  up  ridges  in  their  subterraneous 
progress,  and  rendering  the  walks  unsightly.  If 
they  take  to  the  kitchen  quarters,  they  occasion 
great  damage  among  the  plants  and  roots,  by  de- 
stroying whole  beds  of  cabbages,  young  legumes, 
and  flowers.  When  dug  out,  they  seem  very  slow 
and  helpless,  and  make  no  use  of  their  wings  by 
day,  but  at  night  they  come  abroad  and  make  long 
excursions,  as  I  have  been  convinced  by  finding 
stragglers  in  a  morning  in  improbable  places.  In 
fine  weather,  about  the  middle  of  April,  and  just  at 
the  close  of  day,  they  begin  to  solace  themselves 
with  a  low,  dull,  jarring  note,  continued  for  a  long 
time  without  interruption,  and  not  unlike  the  chat- 
tering of  the  fern-owl  or  goat-sucker,  but  more  in- 
ward. 

About  the  beginning  of  May  they  lay  their  eggs, 
as  I  was  once  an  eyewitness ;  for  a  gardener  at  a 
house  where  I  was  on  a  visit  happening  to  be  mow- 
ing on  the  6th  of  that  month  by  the  side  of  a  canal, 
his  scythe  struck  too  deep,  pared  off  a  large  piece 
of  turf,  and  laid  open  to  view  a  curious  scene  of 
domestic  economy : 

"  Ingentem  lato  dedit  ore  fenestram  : 
Apparet  domus  intus,  et  atria  longa  patescunt : 
Apparent   *****    penetralia." 

There  were  many  caverns  and  winding  passages 
leading  to  a  kind  of  chamber,  neatly  smoothed  and 
rounded,  and  about  the  size  of  a  moderate  snuff- 
box. Within  the  secret  nursery  were  deposited 
near  a  hundred  eggs,  of  a  dirty  yellow  colour,  and 
enveloped  in  a  tough  skin.     The  eggs  lay  but  shaL 


OF   SELBORNE.  285 

low,  and  within  the  influence  of  the  sun,  just  under 
a  little  heap  of  fresh-moved  mould,  like  that  which 
is  raised  by  ants. 

When  mole-crickets  fly  they  move  cursu  undoso, 
rising  and  falling  in  curves,  like  the  other  species 
mentioned  before.  In  different  parts  of  this  king- 
dom people  call  them  fern-crickets,  churr-worms, 
and  eve-churrs,  all  very  apposite  names. 

Anatomists,  who  have  examined  the  intestines 
of  these  insects,  astonish  me  with  their  accounts  ; 
for  they  say  that  from  the  structure,  position,  and 
number  of  their  stomachs  or  maws,  there  seems  to 
be  good  reason  to  suppose  that  this  and  the  two 
former  species  ruminate,  or  chew  the  cud  like 
many  quadrupeds ! 


LETTER    XLV. 

Selborne,  May  7,  1779. 

It  is  now  more  than  forty  years  that  I  have  paid 
some  attention  to  the  ornithology  of  this  district, 
without  being  able  to  exhaust  the  subject :  new 
occurrences  still  arise  as  long  as  any  inquiries  are 
kept  alive. 

In  the  last  week  of  last  month,  five  of  those 
most  rare  birds,  too  uncommon  to  have  obtained 
an  English  name,  but  known  to  naturalists  by  the 
terms  of  Himantopus,  or  loripes,  and  charadrius 
himantopus,  were  shot  upon  the  verge  of  Frimsham 
Pond,  a  large  lake  belonging  to  the  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, and  lying  between  Wolmer  Forest  and  the 
town  of  Farnham,  in  the  county  of  Surrey.     The 


286  NATURAL    HISTORY 

pond-keeper  says  there  were  three  brace  in  the 
flock  ;  but  that,  after  he  had  satisfied  his  curiosity, 


he  suffered  the  sixth  to  remain  unmolested.  One 
of  these  specimens  I  procured,  and  found  the  length 
of  the  legs  to  be  so  extraordinary,  that  at  first 
sight  one  might  have  supposed  the  shanks  had  been 
fastened  on  to  impose  on  the  credulity  of  the  be- 
holder :  they  were  legs  in  caricatura ;  and  had  we 
seen  such  proportions  on  a  Chinese  or  a  Japan 
screen,  we  should  have  made  large  allowances  for 
the  fancy  of  the  draughtsman.  These  birds  are 
of  the  plover  family,  and  might  with  propriety  be 
called  the  stilt-plovers.  Brisson,  under  that  idea, 
gives  them  the  apposite  name  of  Vechasse.  My 
specimen,  when  drawn  and  stuffed  with  pepper, 
weighed  only  four  ounces  and  a  quarter,  though 
the  naked  part  of  the  thigh  measured  three  inches 
and  a  half,  and  the  legs  four  inches  and  a  half. 
Hence  we  may  safely  assert  that  these  birds  ex- 
hibit, weight  for  inches,  incomparably  the  greatest 
length  of  legs  of  any  known  bird.  The  flamingo, 
for  instance,  is  one  of  the  most  long-legged  birds, 
and  yet  it  bears  no  manner  of  proportion  to  the 


OF    SELBORNE.  287 

himantopus ;  for  a  cock  flamingo  weighs,  at  an  av* 
erage,  about  four  pounds  avoirdupois,  and  his  legs 
and  thighs  measure  usually  about  twenty  inches* 
But  four  pounds  are  fifteen  times  and  a  fraction 
more  than  four  ounces  and  a  quarter  ;  and  if  four 
ounces  and  a  quarter  have  eight  inches  of  legs,  four 
pounds  must  have  one  hundred  and  twenty  inches 
and  a  fraction  of  legs,  viz.,  somewhat  more  than 
ten  feet ;  such  a  monstrous  proportion  as  the 
world  never  saw  !  If  you  should  try  the  experiment 
in  still  larger  birds,  the  disparity  would  still  in- 
crease. It  must  be  a  matter  of  great  curiosity  to 
see  the  stilt-plover  move  ;  to  observe  how  it  can 
wield  such  a  length  of  lever  with  such  feeble  mus- 
cles as  the  thighs  seem  to  be  furnished  with.  At 
best  one  should  expect  it  to  be  but  a  bad  walker : 
but  what  adds  to  the  wonder  is,  that  it  has  no  back 
toe.  Now,  without  that  steady  prop  to  support  its 
steps,  it  must  be  liable,  in  speculation,  to  perpetual 
vacillations,  and  seldom  able  to  preserve  the  true 
centre  of  gravity. 

The  old  name  of  hi?nanlopus  is  taken  from  Pliny ; 
and,  by  an  awkward  metaphor,  implies  that  the  legs 
are  as  slender  and  pliant  as  if  cut  out  of  a  thong 
of  leather.  Neither  Wilfoughby  nor  Ray,  in  all 
their  curious  researches,  either  at  home  or  abroad, 
ever  saw  this  bird.  Mr.  Pennant  never  met  with 
it  in  all  Great  Britain,  but  observed  it  often  in  the 
cabinets  of  the  curious  at  Paris.  Hasselquist  says 
that  it  migrates  to  Egypt  in  the  autumn ;  and  a 
most  accurate  observer  of  nature  has  assured  me 
that  he  has  found  it  on  the  banks  of  the  streams  in 
Andalusia. 

Our  writers  record  it  to  have  been  found  only 


288  NATURAL   HISTORY 

twice  in  Great  Britain.  From  all  these  relations, 
it  plainly  appears  that  these  long-legged  plovers 
are  birds  of  South  Europe,  and  rarely  visit  our 
island  ;  and  when  they  do,  are  wanderers  and  strag- 
glers, and  impelled  to  make  so  distant  and  northern 
an  excursion  from  motives  or  accidents  for  which 
we  are  not  able  to  account.  One  thing  may  fairly 
be  deduced,  that  these  birds  come  over  to  us  from 
the  Continent,  since  nobody  can  suppose  that  a 
species  not  noticed  once  in  an  age,  and  of  such  a 
remarkable  make,  can  constantly  be  unobserved  in 
this  kingdom. 


LETTER     XLVI. 

Selbome,  April  21,  1780. 

Dear  Sir, — The  old  Sussex  tortoise,  that  I  have 
mentioned  to  you  so  often,  is  become  my  property. 
I  dug  it  out  of  its  winter  dormitory  in  March  last, 
when  it  was  enough  awakened  to  express  its  re- 
sentments by  hissing;  and,  packing  it  in  a  box 
with  earth,  carried  it  eighty  miles  in  post-chaises. 
The  rattle  and  hurry  of  the  journey  so  perfectly 
roused  it,  that  when  I  turned  it  out  on  a  border  it 
walked  twice  down  to  the  bottom  of  my  garden ; 
however,  in  the  evening,  the  weather  being  cold, 
it  buried  itself  in  the  loose  mould,  and  continues 
still  concealed. 

As  it  will  be  under  my  eye,  I  shall  now  have 
an  opportunity  of  enlarging  my  observations  on 
its  mode  of  life  and  propensities ;  and  perceive  al- 
ready, that  towards  the  time  of  coming  forth,  it 


OF    SELBORNE.  289 

opens  a  breathing-place  in  the  ground  near  its  head, 
requiring,  I  conclude,  a  freer  respiration  as  it  be- 
comes more  alive.  This  creature  not  only  goes 
under  the  earth  from  the  middle  of  November  to 
the  middle  of  April,  but  sleeps  great  part  of  the 
summer ;  for  it  goes  to  bed  in  the  longest  days  at 
four  in  the  afternoon,  and  often  does  not  stir  in  the 
morning  till  late.  Besides,  it  retires  to  rest  at  ev- 
ery shower,  and  does  not  move  at  all  in  wet  days. 

When  one  reflects  on  the  state  of  this  strange 
being,  it  is  a  matter  of  wonder  to  find  that  Provi- 
dence should  bestow  such  a  profusion  of  days,  such 
a  seeming  waste  of  longevity,  on  a  reptile  that  ap- 
pears to  relish  it  so  little  as  to  squander  more  than 
two  thirds  of  its  existence  in  a  joyless  stupor,  and 
be  lost  to  all  sensation  for  months  together  in  the 
profoundest  of  slumbers. 

While  I  was  writing  this  letter,  a  moist  and  warm 
afternoon,  with  the  thermometer  at  50°,  brought 
forth  troops  of  shell-snails  ;  and,  at  the  same  junc- 
ture, the  tortoise  heaved  up  the  mould  and  put  out 
its  head,  and  the  next  morning  came  forth,  as  it 
were  raised  from  the  dead,  and  walked  about  till 
four  in  the  afternoon.  This  was  a  curious  coinci- 
dence !  a  very  amusing  occurrence  !  to  see  such  a 
similarity  of  feeling  between  two  (pepeoutoi !  for 
so  the  Greeks  call  both  the  shell-snail  and  the  tor- 
toise. 

Summer  birds  are,  this  cold  and  backward 
spring,  unusually  late :  I  have  seen  but  one  swal- 
low yet.  This  conformity  with  the  weather  con- 
vinces me  more  and  more  that  they  sleep  in  the 
winter. 

Bb 


290  NATURAL   HISTORY 

MORE   PARTICULARS    RESPECTING   THE    OLD   FAMILY 
TORTOISE. 

Because  we  call  this  creature  an  abject  reptile, 
we  are  too  apt  to  undervalue  his  abilities,  and  de- 
preciate his  powers  of  instinct.  Yet  he  is,  as  Mr. 
Pope  says  of  his  lord, 

"  Much  too  wise  to  walk  into  a  well," 
and  has  so  much  discernment  as  not  to  fall  down 
an  haha,  but  to  stop  and  withdraw  from  the  brink 
with  the  readiest  precaution. 

Though  he  loves  warm  weather,  he  avoids  the 
hot  sun,  because  his  thick  shell,  when  once  heated, 
would,  as  the  poet  says  of  solid  armour,  "scald 
with  safety."  He  therefore  spends  the  more  sultry 
hours  under  the  umbrella  of  a  large  cabbage-leaf, 
or  amid  the  waving  forests  of  an  asparagus  bed. 

But,  as  he  avoids  the  heat  in  summer,  so,  in  the 
decline  of  the  year,  he  improves  the  faint  autumnal 
beams,  by  getting  within  the  reflection  of  a  fruit- 
wall  ;  and,  though  he  never  has  read  that  planes 
inclining  to  the  horizon  receive  a  greater  share  of 
warmth,*  he  inclines  his  shell,  by  tilting  it  against 
the  wall,  to  collect  and  admit  every  feeble  ray. 

Pitiable  seems  the  condition  of  this  poor  embar- 
rassed reptile  :  to  be  cased  in  a  suit  of  ponderous 
armour  which  he  cannot  lay  aside ;  to  be  impris- 
oned, as  it  were,  within  his  own  shell,  must  pre- 
clude, we  should  suppose,  all  activity  and  disposition 
for  enterprise.     Yet  there  is  a  season  of  the  year 

*  Several  years  ago  a  book  was  written,  entitled,  "Fruit- 
walls  Improved  by  inclining  them  to  the  Horizon,"  in  which  the 
author  has  shown,  by  calculation,  that  a  much  greater  number 
of  the  rays  of  the  sun  will  fall  on  such  walls  than  on  those  which 
are  perpendicular. 


OF    SELBORNE.  291 

(usually  the  beginning  of  June)  when  his  exertions 
are  remarkable.  He  then  walks  on  tiptoe,  and  is 
stirring  by  five  in  the  morning  ;  and,  traversing  the 
garden,  examines  every  wicket  and  interstice  in  the 
fences,  through  which  he  will  escape  if  possible,  and 
often  has  eluded  the  care  of  the  gardener,  and  wan- 
dered  to  some  distant  field. 


LETTER     XLVII. 

Selborne,  Sept.  3,  1781. 

I  have  now  read  your  Miscellanies  through  with 
much  care  and  satisfaction,  and  am  to  return  you 
my  best  thanks  for  the  honourable  mention  made 
in  them  of  me  as  a  naturalist,  which  I  wish  I  may 
deserve. 

In  some  former  letters  I  expressed  my  suspicions 
that  many  of  the  house-martins  do  not  depart  in  the 
winter  far  from  this  village.  I  therefore  determin- 
ed to  make  some  search  about  the  southeast  end  of 
the  hill,  where  I  imagined  they  might  slumber  out 
the  uncomfortable  months  of  winter.  But,  suppo- 
sing that  the  examination  would  be  made  to  the 
best  advantage  in  the  spring,  and  observing  that  no 
martins  had  appeared  by  the  11th  of  April  last,  on 
that  day  I  employed  some  men  to  explore  the  shrubs 
and  cavities  of  the  suspected  spot.  The  persons 
took  pains,  but  without  any  success;  however,  a 
remarkable  incident  occurred  in  the  midst  of  our 
pursuit :  while  the  labourers  were  at  work,  a  house- 
martin,  the  first  that  had  been  seen  this  year,  came 
down  the  village  in  the  sight  of  several  people,  and 


292  NATURAL   HISTORY 

went  at  once  into  a  nest,  where  it  stayed  a  short 
time,  and  then  flew  over  the  houses  ;  for  some  days 
after  no  martins  were  observed,  nor  till  the  16th  of 
April,  and  then  only  a  pair.  Martins  in  general 
were  remarkably  late  this  year. 


LETTER     XLVIII. 

Selborne,  Sept.  9,  1781. 
I  have  just  met  with  a  circumstance  respecting 
swifts  which  furnishes  an  exception  to  the  whole 
tenour  of  my  observations  ever  since  1  have  be- 
stowed any  attention  on  that  species  of  hirundines. 
Our  swifts  in  general  withdrew  this  year  about  the 
1st  day  of  August,  all  save  one  pair,  which  in  two 
or  three  days  was  reduced  to  a  single  bird.  The 
perseverance  of  this  individual  made  me  suspect 
that  the  strongest  motives,  that  of  an  attachment 
to  her  young,  could  alone  occasion  so  late  a  stay. 
I  watched,  therefore,  till  the  24th  of  August,  and 
then  discovered  that  under  the  eaves  of  the  church 
she  attended  upon  two  young,  which  were  fledged, 
and  now  put  out  their  white  chins  from  a  crevice. 
These  remained  till  the  27th,  looking  more  alert 
every  day,  and  seeming  to  long  to  be  on  the  wing. 
After  this  day  they  were  missing  at  once ;  nor 
could  I  ever  observe  them  with  their  dam  coursing 
round  the  church  in  the  act  of  learning  to  fly,  as 
the  first  broods  evidently  do.  On  the  31st  I  caused 
the  eaves  to  be  searched,  but  we  found  in  the  nest 
only  two  callow,  dead  swifts,  on  which  a  second 
nest  had  been  formed.     This  double  nest  was  full 


OF    SELBORNE.  293 

of  the  black  shining  cases  of  the  hippobosca  hirun- 
dinis. 

The  following  remarks  on  this  unusual  incident 
are  obvious.  The  first  is,  that  though  it  may  be 
disagreeable  to  swifts  to  remain  beyond  the  begin- 
ning of  August,  yet  that  they  can  subsist  longer  is 
undeniable.  The  second  is,  that  this  uncommon 
event,  as  it  was  owing  to  the  loss  of  the  first  brood, 
so  it  corroborates  my  former  remark,  that  swifts 
have  but  one  regularly ;  since,  was  the  contrary 
the  case,  the  occurrence  above  could  neither  be 
new  nor  rare. 

One  swift  was  seen  at  Lyndon,  in  the  county  of 
Rutland,  in  1782,  so  late  as  the  3d  of  September. 


LETTER     XL  IX. 

As  I  have  sometimes  known  you  make  inquiries 
about  several  kinds  of  insects,  I  shall  here  send 
you  an  account  of  one  sort  which  I  little  expected 
to  have  found  in  this  kingdom.  I  had  often  ob- 
served that  one  particular  part  of  a  vine,  growing 
on  the  walls  of  mv  house,  was  covered  in  the  au- 
tumn  with  a  black  dust-like  appearance,  on  which 
the  flies  fed  eagerly,  and  that  the  shoots  and  leaves 
thus  affected  did  not  thrive,  nor  did  the  fruit  ripen. 
To  this  substance  I  applied  my  glasses,  but  could 
not  discover  that  it  had  anything  to  do  with  animal 
life,  as  I  at  first  expected ;  but,  on  a  closer  exam- 
ination behind  the  larger  boughs,  we  were  sur- 
prised to  find  that  they  were  coated  over  with 
husky  shells,  from  whose  sides  proceeded  a  cotton. 
Bb2 


294  NATURAL   HISTORY 

like  substance,  surrounding  a  multitude  of  eggs. 
This  curious  and  uncommon  production  put  me 
upon  recollecting  what  I  have  heard  and  read  con- 
cerning the  coccus  vitis  viniferce  of  Linnaeus,  which 
in  the  south  of  Europe  infests  many  vines,  and  is 
a  horrid  and  loathsome  pest.  As  soon  as  I  had 
turned  to  the  accounts  given  of  this  insect,  I  saw 
at  once  that  it  swarmed  on  my  vine,  and  did  not 
appear  to  have  been  at  all  checked  by  the  prece- 
ding winter,  which  had  been  uncommonly  severe. 

Not  being  then  at  all  aware  that  it  had  anything 
to  do  with  England,  I  was  much  inclined  to  think 
that  it  came  from  Gibraltar  among  the  many  boxes 
and  packages  of  plants  and  birds  which  I  had  for- 
merly received  from  thence,  and  especially  as  the 
vine  infested  grew  immediately  under  my  study 
window,  where  I  usually  kept  my  specimens.  True 
it  is  that  I  had  received  nothing  from  hence  for 
some  years  ;  but  as  insects,  we  know,  are  conveyed 
from  one  country  to  another  in  a  very  unexpected 
manner,  and  have  a  wonderful  power  of  maintain- 
ing their  existence  till  they  fall  into  a  nidus  proper 
for  their  support  and  increase,  I  cannot  but  suspect 
still  that  these  cocci  came  to  me  originally  from 
Andalusia.  Yet  all  the  while  candour  obliges  me 
to  confess  that  Mr.  Lightfoot  has  written  me  word 
that  he  once,  and  but  once,  saw  these  insects  on  a 
vine  at  Weymouth,  in  Dorsetshire,  which  it  is  here 
to  be  observed  is  a  seaport  town,  to  which  the  coc- 
cus might  be  conveyed  by  shipping. 

As  many  of  my  readers  may  possibly  never 
have  heard  of  this  strange  and  unusual  insect,  I 
shall  here  transcribe  a  passage  from  a  Natural 
History  of  Gibraltar,  written  by  the  Reverend  John 


OP    SELBORNE.  295 

White,  late  vicar  of  Blackburn,  in  Lancashire,  but 
not  yet  published  : 

"  In  the  year  1770,  a  vine  which  grew  on  the 
east  side  of  my  house,  and  which  had  produced 
the  finest  crops  of  grapes  for  years  past,  was  sud- 
denly overspread,  on  all  the  woody  branches,  with 
large  lumps  of  a  white  fibrous  substance  resem- 
bling spiders'  webs,  or,  rather,  raw  cotton.  It  was 
of  a  very  clammy  quality,  sticking  fast  to  every, 
thing  that  touched  it,  and  capable  of  being  spun 
into  long  threads.  At  first  I  suspected  it  to  be  the 
product  of  spiders,  but  could  find  none.  Nothing 
was  to  be  seen  connected  with  it  but  many  brown 
oval  husky  shells,  which  by  no  means  looked  like 
insects,  but  rather  resembled  bits  of  the  dry  bark 
of  the  vine.  The  tree  had  a  plentiful  crop  of 
grapes  set  when  this  pest  appeared  upon  it,  but  the 
fruit  was  manifestly  injured  by  this  foul  encum- 
brance. It  remained  all  the  summer,  still  increas- 
ing,  and  loaded  the  woody  and  bearing  branches 
to  a  vast  degree.  I  often  pulled  off  great  quanti. 
ties  by  handfuls,  but  it  was  so  slimy  and  tenacious 
that  it  could  by  no  means  be  cleared.  The  grapes 
never  filled  to  their  natural  perfection,  but  turned 
watery  and  vapid.  Upon  perusing  the  works  after- 
ward of  M.  de  Reaumur,  I  found  this  matter  per- 
fectly described  and  accounted  for.  Those  husky 
shells  which  I  had  observed  were  no  other  than  the 
female  coccus,  from  whose  sides  this  cotton-like 
substance  exudes,  and  serves  as  a  covering  and  se- 
curity for  their  eggs." 

To  this  account  I  think  proper  to  add,  that 
though  the  female  cocci  are  stationary,  and  seldom 
remove  from  the  place  to  which  they  stick,  yet  the 


296  NATURAL   HISTORY 

male  is  a  winged  insect.  Though  the  utmost  se- 
verity of  our  winter  did  not  destroy  these  insects, 
yet  the  attention  of  the  gardener  in  a  summer  or 
two  has  entirely  relieved  my  vine  from  this  filthy 
annoyance. 

As  we  have  remarked  above  that  insects  are 
often  conveyed  from  one  country  to  another  in  a 
very  unaccountable  manner,  I  shall  here  mention 
an  emigration  of  small  aphides,  which  was  observed 
in  the  village  of  Selborne  no  longer  ago  than  Au- 
gust the  1st,  1785. 

At  about  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  that 
day,  which  was  very  hot,  the  people  of  this  village 
were  surprised  by  a  shower  of  aphides,  or  smother- 
flies,  which  fell  in  these  parts.  Those  that  were 
walking  in  the  street  at  that  juncture  found  them- 
selves covered  with  these  insects,  which  settled 
also  on  the  hedges  and  gardens,  blackening  all  the 
vegetables  where  they  alighted.  My  annuals  were 
discoloured  with  them,  and  the  stalks  of  a  bed  of 
onions  were  quite  coated  over  for  six  days  after. 
These  armies  were  then,  no  doubt,  in  a  state  of 
emigration,  and  shifting  their  quarters,  and  might 
have  come,  as  far  as  we  know,  from  the  great  hop 
plantations  of  Kent  or  Sussex,  the  wind  being  all 
that  day  in  the  easterly  quarter.  They  were  ob- 
served, at  the  same  time,  in  great  clouds  about 
Farnham,  and  all  along  the  lane  from  Farnham  to 
Alton.* 

*  For  various  methods  by  which  several  insects  shift  their 
quarters,  see  Derham's  Physico-  Theology. 


OF    SELBORNE.  297 


LETTEE    "L. 

Dear  Sir, — When  I  happen  to  visit  a  family 
where  Gold  and  Silver  Fishes  are  kept  in  a  glass 


bowl,  I  am  always  pleased  with  the  occurrence,  be- 
cause it  offers  me  an  opportunity  of  observing  the 
actions  and  propensities  of  those  beings  with  whom 
we  can  be  little  acquainted  in  their  natural  state. 
Not  long  since  I  spent  a  fortnight  at  the  house  of  a 
friend  where  there  was  such  a  vivary,  to  which  I 
paid  no  small  attention,  taking  every  occasion  to 
remark  what  passed  within  its  narrow  limits.  It 
was  here  that  I  first  observed  the  manner  in  which 
fishes  die.  As  soon  as  the  creature  sickens,  the 
head  sinks  lower  and  lower,  and  it  stands,  as  it 
were,  on  its  head,  till,  getting  weaker  and  losing 
all  poise,  the  tail  turns  over,  and  at  last  it  floats  on 
the  surface  of  the  water  with  its  belly  uppermost. 
The  reason  why  fishes,  when  dead,  swim  in  that 
manner  is  very  obvious  ;  because,  when  the  body 
is  no  longer  balanced  by  the  fins  of  the  belly,  the 
broad   muscular  back  predominates   by  its  own 


298  NATURAL    HISTORY 

gravity,  and  turns  the  belly  uppermost,  as  lighter, 
from  its  being  a  cavity,  and  because  it  contains  the 
swimming  bladders,  which  contribute  to  render  it 
buoyant.  Some  that  delight  in  gold  and  silver 
fishes  have  adopted  a  notion  that  they  need  no 
aliment.  True  it  is  that  they  will  subsist  for  a 
long  time  without  any  apparent  food  but  what  they 
can  collect  from  pure  water  frequently  changed; 
yet  they  must  draw  some  support  from  animalcula 
and  other  nourishment  supplied  by  the  water.  That 
they  are  best  pleased  with  such  jejune  diet  may 
easily  be  confuted,  since  if  you  toss  them  crumbs 
they  will  seize  them  with  great  readiness,  not  to 
say  greediness :  however,  bread  should  be  given 
sparingly,  lest,  turning  sour,  it  corrupt  the  water. 
They  will  also  feed  on  the  water-plant  called  lemna 
(duck's  meat),  and  also  on  small  fry. 

When  they  want  to  move  a  little  they  gently 
protrude  themselves  with  their  pinnce  pectorales ; 
but  it  is  with  their  strong  muscular  tails  only  that 
they,  and  all  fishes,  shoot  along  with  such  incon- 
ceivable rapidity.  It  has  been  said  that  the  eyes 
of  fishes  are  immovable ;  but  these  apparently 
turn  them  forward  or  backward  in  their  sockets,  as 
their  occasions  require.  They  take  little  notice  of 
a  lighted  candle,  though  applied  close  to  their 
heads,  but  flounce  and  seem  much  frightened  by  a 
sudden  stroke  of  the  hand  against  the  support 
whereon  the  bowl  is  hung,  especially  when  they 
have  been  motionless,  and  are  perhaps  asleep.  As 
fishes  have  no  eyelids,  it  is  not  easy  to  discern 
when  they  are  sleeping  or  not,  because  their  eyes 
are  always  open. 

Nothing  can  be  more  amusing  than  a  glass  bowl 


OF    SELB0RNE.  299 

containing  such  fishes :  the  double  refractions  of 
the  glass  and  water  represent  them,  when  moving, 
in  a  shifting  and  changeable  variety  of  dimensions, 
shades,  and  colours  ;  while  the  two  mediums,  as- 
sisted by  the  concavo-convex  shape  of  the  vessel, 
magnify  and  distort  them  vastly ;  not  to  mention 
that  the  introduction  of  another  element  and  its  in- 
habitants into  our  parlours  engages  the  fancy  in  a 
very  agreeable  manner. 

Gold  and  silver  fishes,  though  originally  natives 
of  China  and  Japan,  yet  are  become  so  well  recon- 
ciled to  our  climate  as  to  thrive  and  multiply  very 
fast  in  our  ponds  and  stews.  Linnaeus  ranks  this 
species  of  fish  under  the  genus  of  cyprinus  or  carp, 
and  calls  it  cyprinus  auratus. 

Some  people  exhibit  this  sort  of  fish  in  a  very 
fanciful  way ;  for  they  cause  a  glass  bowl  to  be 
blown  with  a  large  hollow  spaCe  within  that  does 
not  communicate  with  it.  In  this  cavity  they  put 
a  bird  occasionally,  so  that  you  may  see  a  gold- 
finch or  a  linnet  hopping,  as  it  were,  in  the  midst 
of  the  water,  and  the  fishes  swimming  in  a  circle 
round  it.  The  simple  exhibition  of  the  fishes  is 
agreeable  and  pleasant ;  but  in  so  complicated  a 
way  becomes  whimsical  and  unnatural,  and  liable 
to  the  objection  due  to  him, 

"  Qui  variare  cupit  rem  prodigialiter  unam." 


300  NATURAL   HISTORY 


LETTER    LI. 


Oct.  10,  1781. 

Dear  Sir, — I  think  I  have  observed  before  that 
much  the  most  considerable  part  of  the  house-mar- 
tins withdraw  from  hence  about  the  first  week  in 
October  ;  but  that  some,  the  latter  broods,  I  am 
now  convinced,  linger  on  till  towards  the  middle  of 
that  month  ;  and  that  at  times,  once  perhaps  in  two 
or  three  years,  a  flight,  for  one  day  only,  has 
shown  itself  in  the  first  week  in  November. 

Having  taken  notice,  in  October,  1780,  that  the 
last  flight  was  numerous,  amounting  perhaps  to  one 
hundred  and  fifty,  and  that  the  season  was  soft  and 
still,  I  was  resolved  to  pay  uncommon  attention  to 
these  late  birds,  to  find,  if  possible,  where  they 
roosted,  and  to  determine  the  precise  time  of  their 
retreat.  The  mode  of  life  of  these  latter  hirundines 
is  very  favourable  to  such  a  design,  for  they  spend 
the  whole  day  in  the  sheltered  district  between  me 
and  the  Hanger,  sailing  about  in  a  placid,  easy 
manner,  and  feasting  on  those  insects  which  love 
to  haunt  a  spot  so  secure  from  ruffling  winds. 
As  my  principal  object  was  to  discover  the  place 
of  their  roosting,  I  took  care  to  wait  on  them  be- 
fore they  retired  to  rest,  and  was  much  pleased  to 
find  that,  for  several  evenings  together,  just  at  a 
quarter  past  five  in  the  afternoon,  they  all  scudded 
away  in  great  haste  towards  the  southeast,  and 
darted  down  among  the  low  shrubs  above  the  cot- 
tages at  the  end  of  the  hill.  This  spot  in  many  re- 
spects seems  to  be  well  calculated  for  their  winter 
residence,  for  in  many  parts  it  is  as  steep  as  the 


OP   SELBORNE.  301 

roof  of  any  house,  and  therefore  secure  from  the 
annoyances  of  water  ;  and  it  is,  moreover,  clothed 
with  beechen  shrubs,  which,  being  stunted  and  bit- 
ten by  sheep,  make  the  thickest  covert  imaginable, 
and  are  so  entangled  as  to  be  impervious  to  the 
smallest  spaniel ;  besides,  it  is  the  nature  of  under- 
wood beech  never  to  cast  its  leaf  all  the  winter,  so 
that,  with  the  leaves  on  the  ground  and  those  on  the 
twigs,  no  shelter  can  be  more  complete.  I  watched 
them  on  the  13th  and  14th  of  October,  and  found 
their  evening  retreat  was  exact  and  uniform,  but 
after  this  they  made  no  regular  appearance.  Now 
and  then  a  straggler  was  seen,  and  on  the  22d  of 
October  I  observed  two,  in  the  morning,  over  the 
village,  and  with  them  my  remarks  for  the  season 
ended. 

From  all  these  circumstances  put  together,  it  is 
more  than  probable  that  this  lingering  flight,  at  so 
late  a  season  of  the  year,  never  departed  from  the 
island.  Had  they  indulged  me  that  autumn  with  a 
November  visit,  as  I  much  desired,  I  presume  that, 
with  proper  assistants,  I  should  have  settled  the 
matter  past  all  doubt ;  but  though  the  3d  of  No- 
vember was  a  sweet  day,  and  in  appearance  exactly 
suited  to  my  wishes,  yet  not  a  martin  was  to  be 
seen,  and  so  I  was  forced  reluctantly  to  give  up  the 
pursuit. 

I  have  only  to  add,  that  were  the  bushes,  which 
cover  some  acres,  and  are  not  my  own  property,  to 
be  grubbed  and  carefully  examined,  probably  those 
late  broods,  and  perhaps  the  whole  aggregate  body 
of  the  house-martins  of  this  district,  might  be 
found  there  in  different  secret  dormitories ;  and 
that,  so  far  from  withdrawing  into  warmer  climes, 
Cc 


302  NATURAL   HISTORY 

it  would  appear  that  they  never  depart  three  hun- 
dred yards  from  the  village. 


LETTER     LI  I. 

They  who  write  on  natural  history  cannot  too 
frequently  advert  to  instinct,  that  wonderful  limited 
faculty,  which  in  some  instances  raises  the  brute 
creation,  as  it  were,  above  reason,  and  in  others 
leaves  them  so  far  below  it.  Philosophers  have 
defined  instinct  to  be  that  secret  influence  by  which 
every  species  is  impelled  naturally  to  pursue,  at  all 
times,  the  same  way  or  track,  without  any  teaching 
or  example ;  whereas  reason,  without  instruction, 
would  often  vary,  and  do  that  by  many  methods 
which  instinct  effects  by  one  alone.  Now  this 
maxim  must  be  taken  in  a  qualified  sense,  for  there 
are  instances  in  which  instinct  does  vary  and  con- 
form to  the  circumstances  of  place  and  convenience. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  every  species  of  bird 
has  a  mode  of  nidification  peculiar  to  itself,  so  that 
a  schoolboy  would  at  once  pronounce  on  the  sort 
of  nest  before  him.  This  is  the  case  among  fields, 
and  woods,  and  wilds  ;  but  in  the  villages  round 
London^  where  mosses,  and  gossamer,  and  cotton 
from  vegetables  are  hardly  to  be  found,  the  nest  of 
the  chaffinch  has  not  that  elegant  finished  appear- 
ance, nor  is  it  so  beautifully  studded  with  lichens, 
as  in  a  more  rural  district ;  and  the  wren  is  obliged 
to  construct  its  house  with  straws  and  dry  grasses, 
which  do  not  give  it  that  rotundity  and  compactness 
so  remarkable  in  the  edifices  of  that  little  architect. 


OF  SELBORNE.  303 

Again,  the  regular  nest  of  the  house-martin  is 
hemispheric ;  but  where  a  rafter,  or  a  joist,  or  a 
cornice  may  happen  to  stand  in  the  way,  the  nest 
is  so  contrived  as  to  conform  to  the  obstruction, 
and  becomes  flat,  or  oval,  or  compressed. 

In  the  following  instances  instinct  is  perfectly 
uniform  and  consistent.  There  are  three  creatures, 
the  squirrel,  the  field-mouse,  and  the  bird  called  the 
nuthatch  (sitta  Europcea),  which  live  much  on  hazel- 
nuts,  and  yet  they  open  them  each  in  a  different 
way.  The  first,  after  rasping  off  the  small  end, 
splits  the  shell  into  two  with  his  long  fore  teeth,  as 
a  man  does  with  his  knife  ;  the  second  nibbles  a 
hole  with  his  teeth,  as  regular  as  if  drilled  with  a 
wimble,  and  yet  so  small  that  one  would  wonder 
how  the  kernel  can  be  extracted  through  it ;  while 
the  last  picks  an  irregular  ragged  hole  with  its  bill ; 
but  as  this  artist  has  no  paws  to  hold  the  nut  firm 
while  he  pierces  it,  like  an  adroit  workman,  he  fixes 
it,  as  it  were  in  a  vice,  in  some  cleft  of  a  tree  or  in 
some  crevice,  when,  standing  over  it,  he  perforates 
the  stubborn  shell.  We  have  often  placed  nuts  in 
the  chink  of  a  gatepost  where  nuthatches  have  been 
known  to  haunt,  and  have  always  found  that  those 
birds  have  readily  penetrated  them.  While  at  work 
they  make  a  rapping  noise  that  may  be  heard  at  a 
considerable  distance. 

You  that  understand  both  the  theory  and  prac- 
tical part  of  music,  may  best  inform  us  why  har- 
mony or  melody  should  so  strangely  affect  some 
men,  as  it  were  by  recollection,  for  days  after  a 
concert  is  over.  What  I  mean  the  following  pas- 
sage will  most  readily  explain : 

"  Prsehabebat  porrb  vocibus  humanis,  instrument. 


304  NATURAL    HISTORY 

isque  harmonieis,  musicam  illam  avium  :  non  quod 
alia  quoque  non  delectaretur ;  sed  quod  ex  musica 
humana  relinqueretur  in  animo  continens  quaedam, 
attentionemque  et  somnum  conturbans  agitatio  : 
dum  ascensus,  exscensus,  tenores,  ac  mutationes 
illae  sonorum  et  consonantiarum,  euntque,  redeunt- 
que  per  phantasiam  :  cum  nihil  tale  relinqui  possit 
ex  modulationibus  avium,  quae,  quod  non  sunt  perin- 
de  a  nobis  imitabiles,  non  possunt  perinde  internam 
facultatem  commovere." — Gassendus,  in  Vitd  Pei- 
reskii.* 

This  curious  quotation  strikes  me  much,  by  so 
well  representing  my  own  case,  and  by  describing 
what  I  have  so  often  felt,  but  never  could  so  well 
express.  When  I  hear  fine  music,  I  am  haunted 
with  passages  therefrom  night  and  day,  and  espe- 
cially at  first  waking,  which,  by  their  importunity, 
give  me  more  uneasiness  than  pleasure:  elegant 
lessons  still  tease  my  imagination,  and  recur  irre- 
sistibly to  my  recollection  at  seasons,  and  even 
when  I  am  desirous  of  thinking  of  more  serious 
matters. 

"*  But  to  vocal  and  instrumental  music  he  preferred  that  of 
birds;  not  from  being  incapable  of  finding  delight  in  the  other 
also,  but  because  human  music  leaves  in  the  mind  a  continual 
agitation,  which  disturbs  both  attention  and  sleep,  owing  to  those 
risings,  fallings,  tenors,  and  variations  of  sounds  and  harmony 
passing  and  repassing  continually  through  the  imagination; 
whereas  no  such  effect  can  be  left  from  the  modulations  of  birds, 
because  these  modulations,  not  being  equally  imitable  by  us, 
cannot  affect  our  internal  faculties  in  the  same  degree. 


OF    SELBORNE.  305 


LETTER     LI  1 1. 


A  rare,  and,  I  think,  a  new  little  bird  frequents 
my  garden,  which  I  have  great  reason  to  think  is 
the  pettichaps  :  it  is  common  in  some  parts  of  the 
kingdom,  and  I  have  received  formerly  several 
dead  specimens  from  Gibraltar.  This  bird  much 
resembles  the  whitethroat,  but  has  a  more  white, 
or,  rather,  silvery  breast  and  belly  ;  is  restless  and 
active  like  the  willow-wrens,  and  hops  from  bough 
to  bough,  examining  every  part  for  food ;  it  also 
runs  up  the  stems  of  the  crown  imperials,  and,  put- 
ting its  head  into  the  bells  of  those  flowers,  sips  the 
liquor  which  stands  in  the  nectarium  of  each  petal. 
Sometimes  it  feeds  on  the  ground  like  the  hedge- 
sparrow,  by  hopping  about  on  the  grassplats  and 
mown  walks. 

One  of  my  neighbours,  an  intelligent  and  ob- 
serving man,  informs  me  that,  in  the  beginning  of 
May,  and  about  ten  minutes  before  eight  o'clock  in 
the  evening,  he  discovered  a  great  cluster  of  house- 
swallows,  thirty  at  least,  he  supposes,  perching  on 
a  willow  that  hung  over  the  verge  of  James  Knight's 
upper  pond.  His  attention  was  drawn  by  the  twit- 
tering  of  these  birds,  which  sat  motionless  in  a 
row  on  the  bough,  with  their  heads  all  one  way, 
and  by  their  weight  pressing  down  the  twig  so  that 
it  nearly  touched  the  water.  In  this  situation  he 
watched  them  till  he  could  see  no  longer.  Re- 
peated  accounts  of  this  sort,  spring  and  fall,  induce 
us  greatly  to  suspect  that  house-swallows  have 
some  strong  attachment  to  water,  independent  of 
the  matter  of  food  ;  and,  though  they  may  not  re- 
Cc2 


306  NATURAL   HISTORY 

tire  into  that  element,  yet  they  may  conceal  them- 
selves in  the  banks  of  pools  and  rivers  during  the 
uncomfortable  months  of  winter.* 

One  of  the  keepers  of  Wolmer  Forest  sent  me  a 

*  Swallows,  congregating  and  disappearance  of,  from  Miscel- 
laneous Observations  : 

"  During  the  severe  winds  that  often  prevail  late  in  spring,  it 
is  not  easy  to  say  how  the  hirundines  subsist,  for  the  withdraw- 
ing themselves  is  hardly  ever  seen;  nor  do  any  insects  appear 
for  their  support.  That  they  can  retire,  to  rest  and  sleep  away 
those  uncomfortable  periods,  as  bats  do,  is  a  matter  rather  to  be 
suspected  than  proved  :  or  do  they  not  rather  spend  their  time 
in  deep  and  sheltered  vales,  near  waters,  where  insects  are  more 
likely  to  be  found?  Certain  it  is  that  hardly  any  individuals  of 
this  genus  have  at  such  times  been  seen  for  several  days  to- 
gether. 

"  September  13,  1791.  The  congregating  flocks  of  hirundines 
on  the  church  and  tower  are  very  beautiful  and  amusing. 
When  they  fly  off  together  on  any  alarm,  they  quite  swarm  in 
the  air ;  but  they  soon  settle  into  heaps,  and  preening  their 
feathers,  and  lifting  up  their  wings  to  admit  the  sun,  seem  high- 
ly to  enjoy  the  warm  situation.  Thus  they  spend  the  heat  of  the 
day,  preparing  for  their  emigration,  and,  as  it  were,  consulting 
when  and  where  they  are  to  go.  The  flight  about  the  church 
seems  to  consist  chiefly  of  house-martins,  above  four  hun- 
dred in  number  ;  but  there  are  other  places  of  rendezvous  about 
the  village  frequented  at  the  same  time. 

"  It  is  remarkable,  that  though  most  of  them  sit  on  the  battle- 
ments and  roof,  yet  many  hang  there  for  some  time  by  their 
claws  against  the  surface  of  the  walls,  in  a  manner  not  practised 
by  them  at  any  other  time  of  their  remaining  with  us. 

<l  The  swallows  seem  to  delight  more  in  holding  their  assem- 
blies on  trees.  It  is  very  remarkable,  that  after  the  hirundines 
have  disappeared  for  some  weeks,  a  few  are  occasionally  seen 
again,  sometimes  in  the  first  week  of  November,  and  that  only 
for  one  day.  Do  they  not  withdraw  and  slumber  in  some  hiding- 
place  during  the  interval?  for  we  cannot  suppose  that  they  had 
migrated  to  warmer  climates,  and  so  returned  again  for  one  day. 
Is  it  not  more  probable  that  they  are  awakened  from  sleep,  and, 
like  the  bats,  are  come  forth  to  collect  a  little  food  ?  Bats  appear 
at  all  seasons  through  the  autumn  and  spring  months,  when  the 
thermometer  is  at  50°,  because  their  phalanae  and  moths  are 
thinning. 

"  These  swallows  looked  like  young  ones." 


OF    SELBORNE.  307 

Peregrine  Falcon,  which  he  shot  on  the  verge 


of  that  district,  as  it  was  devouring  a  wood-pigeon. 
The  falco  peregrinus,  or  haggard  falcon,  is  a  noble 
species  of  hawk,  seldom  seen  in  the  southern  coun- 
ties. In  winter,  1767,  one  was  killed  in  the  neigh- 
bouring parish  of  Faringdon,  and  sent  by  me  to 
Mr.  Pennant  into  North  Wales.*  Since  that  time 
I  have  met  with  none  till  now.  The  specimen 
mentioned  above  was  in  fine  preservation,  and  not 
injured  by  the  shot :  it  measured  forty-two  inches 
from  wing  to  wing,  and  twenty-one  from  beak  to 
tail,  and  weighed  two  pounds  and  a  half  standing 
weight.  This  species  is  very  robust,  and  wonder, 
fully  formed  for  rapine  :  its  breast  was  plump  and 
muscular  ;  its  thighs  long,  thick,  and  brawny  ;  and 
its  legs  remarkably  short  and  well-set :  the  feet 
were  armed  with  most  formidable,  sharp,  long 
talons ;  the  eyelids  and  cere  of  the  bill  were  yel- 
low, but  the  irides  of  the  eyes  dusky ;  the  beak 
was  thick  and  hooked,  and  of  a  dark  colour,  and 

*  See  Letters  X.  and  XL,  Part  I. 


308  NATURAL   HISTORY 

had  a  jagged  process  near  the  end  of  the  upper 
mandible  on  each  side ;  its  tail  or  train  was  short 
in  proportion  to  the  bulk  of  its  body,  yet  the  wings, 
when  closed,  did  not  extend  to  the  end  of  the  train. 
From  its  large  and  fair  proportions,  it  might  be 
supposed  to  have  been  a  female  ;  but  I  was  not 
permitted  to  cut  open  the  specimen.  For  one  of 
the  birds  of  prey,  which  are  usually  lean,  this  was 
in  high  case  :  in  its  craw  were  many  barley-corns, 
which  probably  came  from  the  crop  of  the  wood- 
pigeon  on  which  it  was  feeding  when  shot ;  for 
voracious  birds  do  not  eat  grain  ;  but,  when  devour- 
ing their  quarry,  with  undistinguishing  vehemence, 
swallow  bones  and  feathers,  and  all  matters  indis- 
criminately. This  falcon  was  probably  driven 
from  the  mountains  of  North  Wales  or  Scotland, 
where  they  are  known  to  build,  by  rigorous  weath- 
er and  deep  snows  that  had  lately  fallen. 


LETTER     LIV. 

My  near  neighbour,  a  young  gentleman  in  the 
service  of  the  East  India  Company,  has  brought 
home  a  dog  and  a  bitch  of  the  Chinese  breed  from 
Canton,  such  as  are  fattened  in  that  country  for  the 
purpose  of  being  eaten  :  they  are  about  the  size  of 
a  moderate  spaniel,  of  a  pale  yellow  colour,  with 
coarse  bristling  hair  on  their  backs,  sharp  upright 
ears,  and  peaked  heads,  which  give  them  a  very 
fox-like  appearance.  Their  hind  legs  are  unusual- 
ly straight,  without  any  bend  at  the  hock  or  ham, 
to  such  a  degree  as  to  give  them  an  awkward  gait 


OF   SELBORNE.  309 

when  they  trot.  When  they  are  in  motion  their 
tails  are  curved  high  over  their  backs,  like  those  of 
some  hounds,  and  have  a  bare  place  each  on  the 
outside  from  the  tip  midway,  that  does  not  seem 
to  be  matter  of  accident,  but  somewhat  singular. 
Their  eyes  are  jet  black,  small,  and  piercing  ;  the 
insides  of  their  lips  and  mouths  of  the  same  colour, 
and  their  tongues  blue.  The  bitch  has  a  dew-claw 
on  each  hind  leg,  the  dog  has  none.  When  taken 
out  into  a  field,  the  bitch  showed  some  disposition 
for  hunting,  and  dwelt  on  the  scent  of  a  covey  of 
partridges  till  she  sprung  them,  giving  her  tongue 
all  the  time.  The  dogs  in  South  America  are 
dumb,  but  these  bark  much  in  a  short,  thick  man- 
ner,  like  foxes,  and  have  a  surly,  savage  demean, 
our,  like  their  ancestors,  which  are  not  domesti- 
cated, but  bred  up  in  sties,  where  they  are  fed  for 
the  table  with  rice-meal  and  other  farinaceous  food. 
These  dogs,  having  been  taken  on  board  as  soon  as 
weaned,  could  not  learn  much  from  their  dam  ;  yet 
they  did  not  relish  flesh  when  they  came  to  Eng- 
land. In  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  the  dogs 
are  bred  upon  vegetables,  and  would  not  eat  flesh 
when  offered  them  by  our  circumnavigators. 

We  believe  that  all  dogs  in  a  state  of  nature 
have  sharp,  upright,  fox-like  ears  ;  and  that  hang- 
ing ears,  which  are  esteemed  so  graceful,  are  the 
effect  of  choice  breeding  and  cultivation.  Thus, 
in  the  Travels  of  Ysbrandt  Ides  from  Muscovy  to 
China,  the  dogs  which  draw  the  Tartars  on  snow- 
sledges,  near  the  river  Oby,  are  engraved  with 
prick-ears,  like  those  from  Canton.  The  Kamt- 
schatdales  also  train  the  same  sort  of  sharp-eared, 
peaked.nosed  dogs  to  draw  their  sledges,  as  may 


310  NATURAL   HISTORY 

be  seen  in  an  elegant  print  engraved  for  Captain 
Cook's  last  voyage  round  the  world. 

Now  we  are  upon  the  subject  of  dogs,  it  may 
not  be  impertinent  to  add  that  spaniels,  as  all 
sportsmen  know,  though  they  hunt  partridges  and 
pheasants  as  it  were  by  instinct,  and  with  much  de- 
light and  alacrity,  yet  will  hardly  touch  their  bones 
when  offered  as  food  ;  nor  will  a  mongrel  dog  of 
my  own,  though  he  is  remarkable  for  finding  that 
sort  of  game.  But  when  we  came  to  offer  the 
bones  of  partridges  to  the  two  Chinese  dogs,  they 
devoured  them  with  much  greediness,  and  licked 
the  platter  clean. 

No  sporting  dogs  will  flush  woodcocks  till  inured 
to  the  scent  and  trained  to  the  sport,  which  they 
then  pursue  with  vehemence  and  transport ;  but 
then  they  will  not  touch  their  bones,  but  turn  from 
them  with  abhorrence  even  when  they  are  hun- 
gry- 

Now  that  dogs  should  not  be  fond  of  the  bones 
of  such  birds  as  they  are  not  disposed  to  hunt  is 
no  wonder  ;  but  why  they  reject  and  do  not  care  to 
eat  their  natural  game  is  not  so  easily  accounted 
for,  since  the  end  of  hunting  seems  to  be,  that  the 
chase  pursued  should  be  eaten.  Dogs,  again,  will 
not  devour  the  more  rancid  water-fowls,  nor,  indeed, 
the  bones  of  any  wild-fowls,  nor  will  they  touch  the 
foetid  bodies  of  birds  that  feed  on  offal  and  gar- 
bage ;  and,  indeed,  there  may  be  somewhat  of 
providential  instinct  in  this  circumstance  of  dislike, 
for  vultures,*  and  kites,  and  ravens,  and  crows, 

*  Hasselquist,  in  his  Travels  to  the  Levant,  observes  that  the 
dogs  and  vultures  at  Grand  Cairo  maintain  such  a  friendly  inter- 
course as  to  bring  up  their  young  together  in  the  same  place. 


OF   SELBORNE.  311 

&c,  were  intended  to  be  messmates  with  dogs* 
over  their  carrion,  and  seem  to  be  appointed  by 
Nature  as  fellow-scavengers,  to  remove  all  cadav- 
erous nuisances  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 


LETTER     LV. 

The  fossil  wood  buried  in  the  bogs  of  Wolmer 
Forest  is  not  yet  all  exhausted,  for  the  peat-cutters 
now  and  then  stumble  upon  a  log.  I  have  just 
seen  a  piece  which  was  sent  by  a  labourer  of  Oak- 
hanger  to  a  carpenter  of  this  village  ;  this  was  the 
but-end  of  a  small  oak,  about  five  feet  long,  and 
about  five  inches  in  diameter.  It  had  apparently 
been  severed  from  the  ground  by  an  axe,  was  very 
ponderous,  and  as  black  as  ebony.  Upon  asking 
the  carpenter  tor  what  purpose  he  had  procured  it, 
he  told  me  that  it  was  to  be  sent  to  his  brother,  a 
joiner  at  Farnham,  who  was  to  make  use  of  it  in 
cabinet  work,  by  inlaying  it  along  with  whiter 
woods. 

Those  that  are  much  abroad  on  evenings  after  it 
is  dark  in  spring  and  summer,  frequently  hear  a 
nocturnal  bird  passing  by  on  the  wing,  and  repeat- 
ing often  a  short,  quick  note.  This  bird  I  have  re- 
marked myself,  but  never  could  make  out  till  late- 
ly. I  am  assured  now  that  it  is  the  Stone  Cur- 
lew (charadrius  (Edicnemus).  Some  of  them  pass 
over  or  near  my  house  almost  every  evening  after 
it  is  dark,  from  the  uplands  of  the  hill  and  North- 

*  The  Chinese  word  for  a  dog  to  a  European  ear  sounds  like 
quihloh. 


312 


NATURAL   HISTORY 


field  away  down  towards  Dorton,  where,  among 
the  streams  and  meadows,  they  find  a  greater  plen- 


ty of  food.  Birds  that  fly  by  night  are  obliged  to 
be  noisy :  their  notes,  often  repeated,  become  sig- 
nals  or  watchwords  to  keep  them  together,  that 
they  may  not  stray  or  lose  each  other  in  the  dark. 
The  evening  proceedings  and  manoeuvres  of  the 
rooks  are  curious  and  amusing  in  the  autumn. 
Just  before  dusk  they  return  in  long  strings  from 
the  foraging  of  the  day,  and  rendezvous  by  thou, 
sands  over  Selborne  Down,  where  they  wheel  round 
in  the  air,  and  sport  and  dive  in  a  playful  manner, 
all  the  while  exerting  their  voices,  and  making  a 
loud  cawing,  which,  being  blended  and  softened  by 
the  distance  that  we  at  the  village  are  below  them, 
becomes  a  confused  noise  or  chiding,  or,  rather,  a 
pleasing  murmur,  very  engaging  to  the  imagination, 
and  not  unlike  the  cry  of  a  pack  of  hounds  in  hol- 
low, echoing  woods,  or  the  rushing  of  the  wind  in 


OF    SELBORNE.  313 

tall  trees,  or  the  tumbling  of  the  tide  upon  a  pebbly- 
shore.  When  this  ceremony  is  over,  with  the  last 
gleam  of  day  they  retire  for  the  night  to  the  deep 
beechen  woods  of  Tisted  and  Ropley.  We  re- 
member a  little  girl,  who,  as  she  was  going  to  bed, 
used  to  remark  on  such  an  occurrence,  in  the  true 
spirit  of  physico-theology,  that  the  rooks  were  say- 
ing their  prayers  ;  and  yet  this  child  was  much  too 
young  to  be  aware  that  the  Scriptures  have  said 
of  the  Deity  that  "  he  feedeth  the  ravens  who  call 
upon  him." 


LETTER    LVI. 

In  reading  Dr.  Huxham's  Observationes  de  Aere, 
&c,  written  at  Plymouth,  I  find  by  those  curious 
and  accurate  remarks,  which  contain  an  account  of 
the  weather  from  the  year  1727  to  the  year  1748 
inclusive,  that  though  there  is  frequent  rain  in  that 
district  of  Devonshire,  yet  the  quantity  falling  is 
not  great,  and  that  some  years  it  has  been  very 
small ;  for  in  1731  the  rain  measured  only  17iDCh. 
— 266,hou. ;  and  in  1741,  20—354  ;  and  again  in 
1743,  only  20 — 908.  Places  near  the  sea  have 
frequent  scuds,  that  keep  the  atmosphere  moist, 
yet  do  not  reach  far  up  into  the  country,  making 
thus  the  maritime  situations  appear  wet  when  the 
rain  is  not  considerable.  In  the  wettest  years  at 
Plymouth  the  doctor  measured  only  once  36  ;  and 
again  once,  viz.,  1734,  37 — 114  ;  a  quantity  of 
rain  that  has  twice  been  exceeded  at  Sel borne  in  the 
short  period  of  my  observations.     Dr.  Huxham 

Dd 


314  NATURAL    HISTORY 

remarks  that  frequent  small  rains  keep  the  air 
moist,  while  heavy  ones  render  it  more  dry,  by 
beating  down  the  vapours.  He  is  also  of  opinion 
that  the  dingy,  smoky  appearance  in  the  sky,  in 
very  dry  seasons,  arises  from  the  want  of  moisture 
sufficient  to  let  the  light  through  and  render  the 
atmosphere  transparent,  because  he  had  observed 
several  bodies  more  diaphanous  when  wet  than  dry, 
and  did  never  recollect  that  the  air  had  that  look  in 
rainy  seasons. 

My  friend,  who  lives  just  beyond  the  top  of  the 
down,  brought  his  three  swivel  guns  to  try  them  in 
my  outlet,  with  their  muzzles  towards  the  Hanger, 
supposing  that  the  report  would  have  had  a  great 
effect ;  but  the  experiment  did  not  answer  his  ex- 
pectation. He  then  removed  them  to  the  Alcove 
on  the  Hanger  ;  when  the  sound,  rushing  along  the 
Lythe  and  Comb  Wood,  was  very  grand  ;  but  it 
was  at  the  Hermitage  that  the  echoes  and  the  re- 
percussions delighted  the  hearers,  not  only  filling 
the  Lythe  with  the  roar,  as  if  all  the  beeches  were 
tearing  up  by  the  roots,  but,  turning  to  the  left,  they 
pervaded  the  vale  above  Comb  Wood  ponds,  and, 
after  a  pause,  seemed  to  take  up  the  crash  again, 
and  to  extend  round  Harteley  Hanger,  and  to  die 
away  at  last  among  the  coppices  and  coverts  of 
Ward-le-ham.  It  has  been  remarked  before  that 
this  district  is  an  Anatfwth,  a  place  of  responses  or 
echoes,  and  therefore  proper  for  such  experiments  ; 
we  may  farther  add,  that  the  pauses  in  echoes, 
when  they  cease  and  yet  are  taken  up  again,  like 
the  pauses  in  music,  surprise  the  hearers,  and  have 
a  fine  effect  on  the  imagination. 

The  gentleman  above  mentioned  has  just  fixed  a 


OF    SELBORNE.  315 

barometer  in  his  parlour  at  Newton  Valence.  The 
tube  was  first  filled  here  (at  Selborne)  twice  with 
care,  when  the  mercury  agreed,  and  stood  exactly 
with  my  own  ;  but,  being  filled  again  twice  at  New- 
ton, the  mercury  stood,  on  account  of  the  great  el- 
evation of  that  house,  three  tenths  of  an  inch  lower 
than  the  barometers  at  this  village,  and  so  contin- 
ues to  do,  be  the  weight  of  the  atmosphere  what  it 
may.  The  plate  of  the  barometer  at  Newton  is 
figured  as  low  as  27,  because  in  stormy  weather 
the  mercury  there  will  sometimes  descend  below 
28.  We  have  supposed  Newton  House  to  stand 
two  hundred  feet  higher  than  this  house  ;  but  if  the 
rule  holds  good,  which  says  that  mercury  in  a  ba- 
rometer sinks  one  tenth  of  an  inch  for  every  hun- 
dred feet  elevation,  then  the  Newton  barometer, 
by  standing  three  tenths  lower  than  that  of  Sel- 
borne, proves  that  Newton  House  must  be  three 
hundred  feet  higher  than  that  in  which  I  am  writing, 
instead  of  two  hundred. 

It  may  not  be  impertinent  to  add  that  the  ba- 
rometers at  Selborne  stand  three  tenths  of  an  inch 
lower  than  the  barometers  at  South  Lambeth, 
whence  we  may  conclude  that  the  former  place  is 
about  three  hundred  feet  higher  than  the  latter ; 
and  with  good  reason,  because  the  streams  that 
rise  with  us  run  into  the  Thames  at  Weybridge, 
and  so  to  London.  Of  course,  therefore,  there 
must  be  lower  ground  all  the  way  from  Selborne  to 
South  Lambeth  ;  the  distance  between  which,  all 
the  windings  and  indentings  of  the  streams  con- 
sidered, cannot  be  less  than  a  hundred  miles. 


316  NATURAL   HISTORY 


LETTER     LVII. 

Since  the  weather  of  a  district  is  undoubtedly 
part  of  its  natural  history,  I  shall  make  no  farther 
apology  for  the  four  following  letters,  which  will 
contain  many  particulars  concerning  some  of  the 
great  frosts,  and  a  few  respecting  some  very  hot 
summers,  that  have  distinguished  themselves  from 
the  rest  during  the  course  of  my  observations. 

As  the  frost  in  January,  1768,  was,  for  the  small 
time  it  lasted,  the  most  severe  that  we  had  then 
known  for  many  years,  and  was  remarkably  injuri- 
ous to  evergreens,  some  account  of  its  rigour,  and 
reason  of  its  ravages,  may  be  useful,  and  not  unac- 
ceptable to  persons  that  delight  in  planting  and  or- 
namenting, and  may  particularly  become  a  work 
that  professes  never  to  lose  sight  of  utility. 

For  the  last  two  or  three  days  of  the  former 
year  there  were  considerable  falls  of  snow,  which 
lay  deep  and  uniform  on  the  ground,  without  any 
drifting,  wrapping  up  the  more  humble  vegetation 
in  perfect  security.  From  the  first  day  to  the  fifth 
of  the  new  year  more  snow  succeeded,  but  from 
that  day  the  air  became  entirely  clear,  and  the  heat 
of  the  sun  about  noon  had  a  considerable  influence 
in  sheltered  situations. 

It  was  in  such  an  aspect  that  the  snow  on  the 
author's  evergreens  was  melted  every  day  and 
frozen  intensely  every  night,  so  that  the  laurus- 
tines,  bays,  laurels,  and  arbutuses  looked  in  three 
or  four  days  as  if  they  had  been  burned  in  the  fire, 
while  a  neighbour's  plantation  of  the  same  kind,  in 
a  high,  cold  situation,  where  the  snow  was  never 
melted  at  all,  remained  uninjured. 


OP    SELBORNE.  317 

From  hence  I  would  infer  that  it  is  the  repeated 
meiting  and  freezing  of  the  snow  that  is  so  fatal  to 
vegetation,  rather  than  the  severity  of  the  cold. 
Therefore  it  highly  behooves  every  planter,  who 
wishes  to  escape  the  cruel  mortification  of  losing  in 
a  few  days  the  labour  and  hopes  of  years,  to  bestir 
himself  on  such  emergencies,  and,  if  his  plantations 
are  small,  to  avail  himself  of  mats,  cloths,  pease- 
haum,  straw,  reeds,  or  any  such  covering  for  a 
short  time  ;  or,  if  his  shrubberies  are  extensive,  to 
see  that  his  people  go  about  with  prongs  and  forks, 
and  carefully  dislodge  the  snow  from  the  boughs, 
since  the  naked  foliage  will  shift  much  better  for  it- 
self than  where  the  snow  is  partly  melted  and 
frozen  again. 

It  may  perhaps  appear  at  first  like  a  paradox, 
but  doubtless  the  more  tender  trees  and  shrubs 
should  never  be  planted  in  hot  aspects,  not  only  for 
the  reason  assigned  above,  but  also  because,  thus 
circumstanced,  they  are  disposed  to  shoot  earlier 
in  the  spring,  and  to  grow  on  later  in  the  autumn, 
than  they  would  otherwise  do,  and  so  are  sufferers 
by  lagging  or  early  frosts.  For  this  reason,  also, 
plants  from  Siberia  will  hardly  endure  our  climate, 
because,  on  the  very  first  advances  of  spring,  they 
shoot  away,  and  so  are  cut  off  by  the  severe  nights 
of  March  or  April. 

Dr.  Fothergill  and  others  have  experienced  the 
same  inconvenience  with  respect  to  the  more  tender 
shrubs  from  North  America,  which  they  therefore 
plant  under  north  walls.  There  should  also,  per- 
haps, be  a  wall  to  the  east,  to  defend  them  from  the 
piercing  blasts  from  that  quarter. 

This  observation  might,  without  any  impropriety, 
Dd2 


318  NATURAL   HISTORY 

be  carried  into  animal  life ;  for  discerning  bee- 
masters  now  find  that  their  hives  should  not  in  the 
winter  be  exposed  to  the  hot  sun,  because  such  un- 
seasonable warmth  awakens  the  inhabitants  too 
early  from  their  slumbers,  and,  by  putting  their 
juices  into  motion  too  soon,  subjects  them  after- 
ward to  inconveniences  when  rigorous  weather  re- 
turns. 

The  coincidents  attending  this  short  but  intense 
frost  were,  that  the  horses  fell  sick  with  an  epi- 
demic distemper,  which  injured  the  winds  of  many, 
and  killed  some ;  that  colds  and  coughs  were  gen- 
eral among  the  human  species  ;  that  it  froze  under 
people's  beds  for  several  nights  ;  that  meat  was  so 
hard  frozen  that  it  could  not  be  spitted,  and  could 
not  be  secured  but  in  cellars  ;  that  several  red- 
wings and  thrushes  were  killed  by  the  frost ;  and 
that  the  large  titmouse  continued  to  pull  straws 
lengthwise  from  the  eaves  of  thatched  houses  and 
barns  in  a  most  adroit  manner,  for  a  purpose  that 
has  been  explained  already.* 

On  the  third  of  January,  Benjamin  Martin's  ther- 
mometer, within  doors,  in  a  close  parlour  where 
there  was  no  fire,  fell  in  the  night  to  20°,  and  on 
the  4th  to  18°,  and  on  the  7th  to  17£°,  a  degree  of 
cold  which  the  owner  never  since  saw  in  the  same 
situation ;  and  he  regrets  much  that  he  was  not 
able  at  that  juncture  to  attend  his  instrument 
abroad.  All  this  time  the  wind  continued  north 
and  northeast ;  and  yet  on  the  8th,  roost-cocks, 
which  had  been  silent,  began  to  sound  their  clarions, 
and  crows  to  clamour,  as  prognostic  of  milder 
weather;  and,  moreover,  moles  began  to  heave 
*  See  Letter  XLL,  Part  I. 


OF    SELBORNE.  319 

and  work,  and  a  manifest  thaw  took  place.  From 
the  latter  circumstance  we  may  conclude  that  thaws 
often  originate  under  ground  from  warm  vapours 
which  arise,  else  how  should  subterraneous  animals 
receive  such  early  intimations  of  their  approach  ? 
Moreover,  we  have  often  observed  that  cold  seems 
to  descend  from  above ;  for  when  a  thermometer 
hangs  abroad  in  a  frosty  night,  the  intervention  of 
a  cloud  shall  immediately  raise  the  mercury  ten  de- 
grees, and  a  clear  sky  shall  again  compel  it  to  de- 
scend to  its  former  gauge. 

And  here  it  may  be  proper  to  observe,  on  what 
has  been  said  above,  that  though  frosts  advance  to 
their  utmost  severity  by  somewhat  of  a  regular 
gradation,  yet  thaws  do  not  usually  come  on  by  as 
regular  a  declension  of  cold,  but  often  take  place 
immediately  from  intense  freezing,  as  men  in  sick- 
ness often  mend  at  once  from  a  paroxysm. 

To  the  great  credit  of  Portugal  laurels  and 
American  junipers,  be  it  remembered  that  they 
remained  untouched  amid  the  general  havoc  :  hence 
men  should  learn  to  ornament  chiefly  with  such 
trees  as  are  able  to  withstand  accidental  severities, 
and  not  subject  themselves  to  the  vexation  of  a  loss 
which  may  befall  them  once  perhaps  in  ten  years, 
yet  may  hardly  be  recovered  through  the  whole 
course  of  their  lives. 

As  it  appeared  afterward,  the  ilexes  were  much 
injured,  the  cypresses  were  half  destroyed,  the 
arbutuses  lingered  on  but  never  recovered,  and  the 
bays,  laurustines,  and  laurels  were  killed  to  the 
ground  ;  and  the  very  wild  hollies,  in  hot  aspects, 
were  so  much  affected  that  they  cast  all  their 
leaves. 


320  NATURAL    HISTORY 

By  the  14th  of  January  the  snow  was  entirely 
gone ;  the  turnips  emerged,  not  damaged  at  all, 
save  in  sunny  places  ;  the  wheat  looked  delicately, 
and  the  garden  plants  were  well  preserved ;  for 
snow  is  the  most  kindly  mantle  that  infant  vegeta- 
tion can  be  wrapped  in  :  were  it  not  for  that  friend- 
ly meteor,  no  vegetable  life  could  exist  at  all  in 
northerly  regions.  Yet  in  Sweden  the  earth  in 
April  is  not  divested  of  snow  for  more  than  a  fort- 
night before  the  face  of  the  country  is  covered  with 
flowers. 


LETTER     LVIII. 

There  were  some  circumstances  attending  the 
remarkable  frost  in  January,  1776,  so  singular  and 
striking,  that  a  short  detail  of  them  may  not  be  un- 
acceptable. 

The  most  certain  way  to  be  exact  will  be  to  copy 
the  passages  from  my  journal,  which  were  taken 
from  time  to  time  as  things  occurred.  But  it  may 
be  proper  previously  to  remark,  that  the  first  week 
in  January  was  uncommonly  wet,  and  drowned  with 
vast  rains  from  every  quarter ;  from  whence  may 
be  inferred,  as  there  is  great  reason  to  believe  is 
the  case,  that  intense  frosts  seldom  take  place 
till  the  earth  is  perfectly  glutted  and  chilled  with 
water  ;*  and  hence  dry  autumns  are  seldom  follow- 
ed by  rigorous  winters. 

*  The  autumn  preceding  January,  17G8,  was  very  wet,  and 
particularly  the  month  of  September,  during  which  there  fell  at 
Lyndon,  in  the  county  of  Rutland,  six  inches  and  a  half  of  rain. 
And  the  terrible  long  frost  in  1739-40  set  m  after  a  rainy  season, 
and  when  the  springs  were  very  high. 


OF    SELBORNE.  321 

January  7th. — Snow  driving  all  the  day,  which 
was  followed  by  frost,  sleet,  and  some  snow  till  the 
12th,  when  a  prodigious  mass  overwhelmed  all  the 
works  of  men,  drifting  over  the  tops  of  the  gates 
and  rilling  the  hollow  lanes. 

On  the  14th  the  writer  was  obliged  to  be  much 
abroad,  and  thinks  he  never  before  or  since  has 
encountered  such  rugged  Siberian  weather.  Many 
of  the  narrow  roads  were  now  filled  above  the  tops 
of  the  hedges,  through  which  the  snow  was  driven 
into  most  romantic  and  grotesque  shapes,  so  stri- 
king to  the  imagination  as  not  to  be  seen  without 
wonder  and  pleasure.  The  poultry  dared  not  stir 
out  of  their  roosting. places,  for  cocks  and  hens  are 
so  dazzled  and  confounded  by  the  glare  of  snow 
that  they  would  soon  perish  without  assistance. 
The  hares  also  lay  sullenly  in  their  seats,  and 
would  not  move  till  compelled  by  hunger,  being 
conscious,  poor  animals,  that  the  drifts  and  heaps 
treacherously  betray  their  footsteps,  and  prove  fatal 
to  numbers  of  them. 

From  the  14th  the  snow  continued  to  increase, 
and  began  to  stop  the  road  wagons  and  coaches, 
which  could  no  longer  keep  on  their  regular  stages, 
and  especially  on  the  western  roads,  where  the  fall 
appears  to  have  been  deeper  than  in  the  south. 
The  company  at  Bath,  that  wanted  to  attend  the 
queen's  birthday,  were  strangely  incommoded : 
many  carriages  of  persons  who  got  in  their  way  to 
town  from  Bath  as  far  as  Marlborough,  after 
strange  embarrassments,  here  met  with  a  ne  plus 
ultra.  The  ladies  fretted,  and  offered  large  re- 
wards to  labourers  if  they  would  shovel  them  a 
track  to  London ;  but  the  relentless  heaps  of  snow 


322  NATURAL   HISTORY 

were  too  bulky  to  be  removed,  and  so  tbe  18th 
passed  over,  leaving  the  company  in  very  uncom- 
fortable circumstances  at  the  Castle  and  other  inns. 

On  the  20th  the  sun  shone  out  for  the  first  time 
since  the  frost  began  ;  a  circumstance  that  has  been 
remarked  before  much  in  favour  of  vegetation. 
A.11  this  time  the  cold  was  not  very  intense,  for  the 
thermometer  stood  at  29°,  28°,  25°,  and  there- 
about, but  on  the  21st  it  descended  to  20°.  The 
birds  now  began  to  be  in  a  very  pitiable  and  starv- 
ing condition.  Tamed  by  the  season,  skylarks 
settled  in  the  streets  of  towns,  because  they  saw 
the  ground  was  bare  ;  rooks  frequented  dunghills 
close  to  houses  ;  and  crows  watched  horses  as  they 
passed,  and  greedily  devoured  what  dropped  from 
them  ;  hares  now  came  into  men's  gardens,  and, 
scraping  away  the  snow,  devoured  such  plants  as 
they  could  find. 

On  the  22d  the  author  had  occasion  to  go  to 
London  through  a  sort  of  Laplandian  scene,  very 
wild  and  grotesque  indeed.  But  the  metropolis 
itself  exhibited  a  still  more  singular  appearance 
than  the  country  ;  for,  being  bedded  deep  in  snow, 
the  pavement  of  the  streets  could  not  be  touched  by 
the  wheels  or  the  horses'  feet,  so  that  the  carriages 
ran  about  without  the  least  noise.  Such  an  ex- 
emption from  din  and  clatter  was  strange,  but  not 
pleasant ;  it  seemed  to  convey  an  uncomfortable 
idea  of  desolation. 

"  Ipsa  silentia  terrent." 

On  the  27th,  much  snow  fell  all  day,  and  in  the 
evening  the  frost  became  very  intense.  At  South 
Lambeth,  for  the  four  following  nights,  the  ther- 


OF    SELBORNE.  323 

mometer  fell  to  11°,  7°,  6°,  6°,  and  at  Selborne  to 
7°,  6°,  10°;  and  on  the  31st  of  January,  just  be- 
fore sunrise,  with  rime  on  the  trees  and  on  the  tube 
of  the  glass,  the  quicksilver  sunk  exactly  to  zero, 
being  32  degrees  below  the  freezing  point ;  but  by 
eleven  in  the  morning,  though  in  the  shade,  it 
sprung  up  to  16|°  :*  a  most  unusual  degree  of  cold 
this  for  the  south  of  England  !  During  these  four 
nights  the  cold  was  so  penetrating  that  it  occa- 
sioned ice  in  warm  chambers  and  under  beds,  and 
in  the  day  the  wind  was  so  keen  that  persons  of  ro- 
bust constitutions  could  scarcely  endure  to  face  it. 
The  Thames  was  at  once  so  frozen  over,  both  above 
and  below  the  bridge,  that  crowds  ran  about  on  the 
ice.  The  streets  were  now  strangely  encumbered 
with  snow,  which  crumbled  and  trode  dusty,  and, 
turning  gray,  resembled  bay-salt :  what  had  fallen 
on  the  roofs  was  so  perfectly  dry,  that  from  first  to 
last  it  lay  twenty-six  days  on  the  houses  in  the  city  ; 
a  longer  time  than  had  been  remembered  by  the 
oldest  houskeepers  living.  According  to  all  ap- 
pearances, we  might  now  have  expected  the  contin- 
uance of  this  rigorous  weather  for  weeks  to  come, 
since  every  night  increased  in  severity ;  but,  be- 
hold, without  any  apparent  cause,  on  the  1st  of 
February  a  thaw  took  place,  and  some  rain  fol- 
lowed before  night,  making  good  the  observation 
above,  that  frosts  often  go  off  as  it  were  at  once, 

*  At  Selborne  the  cold  was  greater  than  at  any  other  place 
that  the  author  could  hear  of  with  certainty  :  though  some  re- 
ported at  the  time  that  at  a  village  in  Kent  the  thermometer  fell 
two  degrees  below  zero,  viz.,  34  degrees  below  the  freezing 
point. 

The  thermometer  used  at  Selborne  was  graduated  by  Benja- 
min Martin. 


324  NATURAL   HISTORY 

without  any  gradual  declension  of  cold.  On  the  2d 
of  February  the  thaw  persisted,  and  on  the  3d 
swarms  of  little  insects  were  frisking  and  sporting 
in  a  courtyard  of  South  Lambeth,  as  if  they  had 
felt  no  frost.  Why  the  juices  in  the  small  bodies 
and  smaller  limbs  of  such  minute  beings  are  not 
frozen  is  a  matter  of  curious  inquiry. 

Severe  frosts  seem  to  be  partial  or  to  run  in  cur- 
rents ;  for,  at  the  same  juncture,  as  the  author  was 
informed  by  accurate  correspondents,  at  Lyndon, 
in  the  county  of  Rutland,  the  thermometer  stood  at 
19°  ;  at  Blackburn,  in  Lancashire,  at  19°  ;  and 
at  Manchester  at  21°,  20°,  and  18°.  Thus  does 
some  unknown  circumstance  strangely  overbalance 
latitude,  and  render  the  cold  sometimes  much 
greater  in  the  southern  than  the  northern  parts  of 
this  kingdom. 

The  consequences  of  this  severity  were,  that  in 
Hampshire,  at  the  melting  of  the  snow,  the  wheat 
looked  well,  and  the  turnips  came  forth  little  in- 
jured. The  laurels  and  laurustines  were  somewhat 
damaged,  but  only  in  hot  aspects.  No  evergreens 
were  quite  destroyed,  and  not  half  the  damage 
sustained  that  befell  in  January,  1768.  Those 
laurels  that  were  a  little  scorched  on  the  south 
sides  were  perfectly  untouched  on  their  north 
sides.  The  care  taken  to  shake  the  snow  day  by 
day  from  the  branches  seemed  greatly  to  avail  the 
author's  evergreens.  A  neighbour's  laurel  hedge, 
in  a  high  situation,  and  facing  to  the  north,  was 
perfectly  green  and  vigorous ;  and  the  Portugal 
laurels  remained  unhurt. 

As  to  the  birds,  the  thrushes  and  blackbirds 
were  mostly  destroyed  ;  and  the  partridges,  by  the 


OF    SELBORNE.  325 

weather  and  poachers,  were  so  thinned  that  few 
remained  the  following  year. 


LETTER     LIX. 

As  the  frost  in  December,  1784,  was  very  extra- 
ordinary, you,  I  trust,  will  not  be  displeased  to 
hear  the  particulars,  and  especially  when  I  promise 
to  say  no  more  about  the  severities  of  winter  after 
I  have  finished  this  letter. 

The  first  week  in  December  was  very  wet,  with 
the  barometer  very  low.  On  the  7th,  with  the 
barometer  at  28  five  tenths,  came  on  a  vast  snow, 
which  continued  all  that  day  and  the  next,  and 
most  part  of  the  following  night,  so  that  by  the 
morning  of  the  9th  the  works  of  men  were  quite 
overwhelmed,  the  lanes  filled  so  as  to  be  impassable, 
and  the  ground  covered  twelve  or  fifteen  inches 
without  any  drifting.  In  the  evening  of  the  9th 
the  air  began  to  be  so  very  sharp  that  we  thought 
it  would  be  curious  to  attend  to  the  motions  of  a 
thermometer ;  we  therefore  hung  out  two,  one 
made  by  Martin  and  one  by  Dollond,  which  soon 
began  to  show  us  what  we  were  to  expect,  for  by 
ten  o'clock  they  fell  to  21°,  and  at  eleven  to  4°, 
when  we  went  to  bed.  On  the  10th,  in  the  morn- 
ing, the  quicksilver  of  Dollond's  glass  was  down  to 
half  a  degree  below  zero,  and  that  of  Martin's, 
which  was  absurdly  graduated  only  to  four  degrees 
above  zero,  sunk  quite  into  the  brass  guard  of  the 
ball,  so  that,  when  the  weather  became  most  inter- 
esting, this  was  useless.     On  the  10th    at  eleven 

Ee 


326  NATURAL    HISTORY 

at  night,  though  the  air  was  perfectly  still,  Dol- 
lond's  glass  went  down  to  one  degree  below  zero  ! 
This  strange  severity  of  the  weather  made  me  very 
desirous  to  know  what  degree  of  cold  there  might 
be  in  such  an  exalted  and  near  situation  as  New- 
ton. We  had,  therefore,  on  the  morning  of  the 
10th,  written  to  Mr.  — ■ — ,  and  entreated  him  to 
hang  out  his  thermometer  made  by  Adams,  and  to 
pay  some  attention  to  it  morning  and  evening,  ex- 
pecting wonderful  phenomena  in  so  elevated  a  re- 
gion, at  two  hundred  feet  or  more  above  my  house. 
But,  behold  !  on  the  10th,  at  eleven  at  night,  it  was 
down  only  to  17°,  and  the  next  morning  at  22°, 
when  mine  was  at  10°  !  We  were  so  disturbed  at 
this  unexpected  reverse  of  comparative  local  cold, 
that  we  sent  one  of  my  glasses  up,  thinking  that  of 

Mr. must,  somehow,  be  wrongly  constructed. 

But,  when  the  instruments  came  to  be  confronted, 
they  went  exactly  together,  so  that,  for  one  night 
at  least,  the  cold  at  Newton  was  18  degrees  less 
than  at  Selborne,  and  through  the  whole  frost  10  or 
12  degrees  ;  and,  indeed,  when  we  came  to  ob- 
serve consequences,  we  could  readily  credit  this, 
for  all  my  laurustines,  bays,  ilexes,  arbutuses,  cy- 
presses, and  even  my  Portugal  laurels,*  and,  which 
occasions  more  regret,  my  fine  sloping  laurel 
hedge,  were  scorched  up,  while  at  Newton  the 
same  trees  have  not  lost  a  leaf! 

We  had  steady  frost  on  the  25th,  when  the  ther- 

*  Mr.  Miller,  in  his  Gardener's  Dictionary,  says  positively 
that  the  Portugal  laurels  remained  untouched  in  the  remarkable 
frost  of  1739-40.  So  that  either  that  accurate  obs*rver  was 
much  mistaken,  or  else  the  frost  of  December,  1784,  was  much 
more  severe  and  destructive  than  that  in  the  year  above  men- 
tioned. 


OF    SELBORNE.  327 

mometer  in  the  morning  was  down  to  10°  with  us, 
and  at  Newton  only  to  21°.  Strong  frost  continued 
till  the  31st,  when  some  tendency  to  thaw  was  ob- 
served, and  by  January  the  3d,  1785,  the  thaw  was 
confirmed,  and  some  rain  fell. 

A  circumstance  that  I  must  not  omit,  because  it 
was  new  to  us,  is,  that  on  Friday,  December  the 
10th,  being  bright  sunshine,  the  air  was  full  of  icy 
spicules,  floating  in  all  directions,  like  atoms  in  a 
sunbeam  let  into  a  dark  room.  We  thought  them 
at  first  particles  of  the  rime  falling  from  my  tall 
hedges,  but  were  soon  convinced  to  the  contrary 
by  making  our  observations  in  open  places  where 
no  rime  could  reach  us.  Were  they  watery  parti- 
cles of  the  air  frozen  as  they  floated,  or  were 
they  evaporations  from  the  snow  frozen  as  they 
mounted  1 

We  were  much  obliged  to  the  thermometers  for 
the  early  information  they  gave  us,  and  hurried  our 
apples,  pears,  onions,  potatoes,  &c,  into  the  cellar 
and  warm  closets ;  while  those  who  had  not,  or 
neglected  such  warnings,  lost  all  their  stores  of 
roots  and  fruits,  and  had  their  very  bread  and 
cheese  frozen. 

I  must  not  omit  to  tell  you,  that  during  those 
two  Siberian  days  my  parlour  cat  was  so  electric, 
that,  had  a  person  stroked  her  and  been  properly 
insulated,  the  shock  might  have  been  given  to  a 
whole  circle  of  people. 

I  forgot  to  mention  before,  that  during  the  two 
severe  days,  two  men  who  were  tracing  hares  in 
the  snow  had  their  feet  frozen,  and  two  men  who 
were  much  better  employed  had  their  fingers  so  af- 
fected by  the  frost  while  they  were  thrashing  in  a 


328  NATURAL   HISTORY 

barn,  that  mortification  followed,  from  which  they 
did  not  recover  for  many  weeks. 

This  frost  killed  all  the  furze  and  most  of  the  ivy, 
and  in  many  places  stripped  the  hollies  of  all  their 
leaves.  It  came  at  a  very  early  time  of  the  year, 
before  old  November  ended,  and  may  yet  be  al- 
lowed, from  its  effects,  to  have  exceeded  any  since 
1739-40. 


LETTER     LX. 

As  the  effects  of  heat  are  seldom  very  remarka- 
ble in  the  northerly  climate  of  England,  where  the 
summers  are  often  so  very  defective  in  warmth  and 
sunshine  as  not  to  ripen  the  fruits  of  the  earth  so 
well  as  might  be  wished,  I  shall  be  more  concise  in 
my  account  of  the  severity  of  a  summer  season, 
and  so  make  a  little  amends  for  the  prolix  account 
of  the  degrees  of  cold,  and  the  inconveniences  that 
we  suffered  from  some  late  rigorous  winters. 

The  summers  of  17,81  and  1783  were  unusually 
hot  and  dry  ;  to  them,  therefore,  I  shall  turn  back 
in  my  journals,  without  recurring  to  any  more  dis- 
tant period.  In  the  former  of  these  years  my 
peach  and  nectarine  trees  suffered  so  much  from 
the  heat  that  the  rind  on  the  bodies  was  scalded 
and  came  off,  since  which  the  trees  have  been  in  a 
decaying  state.  This  may  prove  a  hint  to  assidu- 
ous gardeners,  to  fence  and  shelter  their  wall-trees 
with  mats  or  boards,  as  they  may  easily  do,  be- 
cause such  annoyance  is  seldom  of  long  contin- 
uance.    During  that  summer,  also,  I  observed  that 


OF    SELBORNE.  329 

my  apples  were  coddled,  as  it  were,  on  the  trees,  so 
that  they  had  no  quickness  of  flavour,  and  would 
not  keep  in  the  winter.  This  circumstance  put  me 
in  mind  of  what  I  have  heard  travellers  assert,  that 
they  never  ate  a  good  apple  or  apricot  in  the  south 
of  Europe,  where  the  heats  were  so  great  as  to 
render  the  juices  vapid  and  insipid. 

The  great  pests  of  a  garden  are  wasps,  which 
destroy  all  the  finer  fruits  just  as  they  are  coming 
into  perfection.  In  1781  we  had  none ;  in  1783 
there  were  myriads,  which  would  have  devoured 
all  the  produce  of  my  garden  had  we  not  set  the 
boys  to  take  the  nests,  and  caught  thousands  with 
hazel-twigs  tipped  with  bird-lime :  we  have  since 
employed  the  boys  to  take  and  destroy  the  large 
wasps  in  the  spring.  Such  expedients  have  a  great 
effect  on  these  marauders,  and  will  keep  them 
under.  Though  wasps  do  not  abound  but  in  hot 
summers,  yet  they  do  not  prevail  in  every  hot 
summer,  as  I  have  instanced  in  the  two  years 
above  mentioned.* 

In  the  sultry  season  of  1783,  honey-dews  were 
so  frequent  as  to  deface  and  destroy  the  beauties  of 
my  garden.  My  honeysuckles,  which  were  one 
week  the  loveliest  objects  that  eye  could  behold, 
became  the  next  the  most  loathsome,  being  envel- 

*  Wasps  abound  in  woody,  wild  districts,  far  from  neighbour- 
hoods ;  they  feed  on  flowers,  and  catch  flies  and  caterpillars  to 
carry  to  their  young.  Wasps  make  their  nests  with  the  rasp- 
ings of  sound  timber ;  hornets,  with  what  they  gnaw  from  de- 
cayed ;  these  particles  of  wood  are  kneaded  up  with  a  mixture 
of  saliva  from  their  bodies,  and  moulded  into  combs. 

When  there  is  no  fruit  in  the  gardens,  wasps  eat  flies,  and 
suck  the  honey  from  flowers,  from  ivy  blossoms,  and  umbellated 
plants  :  they  carry  off  also  flesh  from  butchers'  shambles. — 
White's  Observations  on  Insects. 

Ee2 


330  NATURAL    HISTORY 

oped  in  a  viscous  substance,  and  loaded  with  black 
aphides,  or  smother-flies.  The  occasion  of  this 
clammy  appearance  seems  to  be  this,  that  in  hot 
weather,  the  effluvia  of  flowers  in  fields,  and 
meadows,  and  gardens  are  drawn  up  in  the  day  by 
a  brisk  evaporation,  and  then  in  the  night  fall  down 
again  with  the  dews  in  which  they  are  entangled ; 
that  the  air  is  strongly  scented,  and  therefore  im- 
pregnated with  the  particles  of  flowers  in  summer 
weather,  our  senses  will  inform  us  ;  and  that  this 
clammy  sweet  substance  is  of  the  vegetable  kind 
we  may  learn  from  bees,  to  whom  it  is  very  grate- 
ful ;  and  we  may  be  assured  that  it  falls  in  the 
night,  because  it  is  always  first  seen  in  warm,  still 
mornings.* 

On  chalky  and  sandy  soils,  and  in  the  hot  vil- 
lages about  London,  the  thermometer  has  been 
often  observed  to  mount  as  high  as  83°  or  84°  ; 
but  with  us,  in  this  hilly  and  woody  district,  I  have 
hardly  ever  seen  it  exceed  80°,  nor  does  it  often 
arrive  at  that  pitch.  The  reason,  I  conclude,  is, 
that  our  dense  clayey  soil,  so  much  shaded  by 
trees,  is  not  so  easily  heated  through  as  those 

*  Humming  in  the  air. — There  is  a  natural  occurrence  to  be 
met  with  upon  the  highest  part  of  our  down  in  hot  summer  days, 
which  always  amuses  me  much,  without  giving  me  any  sat- 
isfaction with  respect  to  the  cause  of  it;  and  that  is,  a  loud, 
audible  humming  of  bees  in  the  air,  though  not  one  insect  to  be 
seen.  Any  person  would  suppose  that  a  large  swarm  of  bees 
was  in  motion,  and  playing  over  his  head. 

"  Resounds  the  living  surface  of  the  ground, 
Nor  undelightful  is  the  ceaseless  hum 
To  him  who  muses— at  noon  ! 
Thick  in  yon  streams  of  light,  a  thousand  ways, 
Upward  and  downward,  thwarting  and  convolved, 
The  quivering  nations  sport." — Thomson's  Seasons. 
White,  Observations  on  Insects. 


OF    SELBORNE.  331 

above  mentioned ;  and,  besides,  our  mountains 
cause  currents  of  air  and  breezes,  and  the  vast 
effluvia  from  our  woodlands  temper  and  moderate 
our  heats. 


LETTER     LXI. 

The  summer  of  the  year  1783  was  an  amazing 
and  portentous  one,  and  full  of  horrible  phenom- 
ena ;  for,  besides  the  alarming  meteors  and  tre- 
mendous thunder-storms  that  affrighted  and  dis- 
tressed the  different  counties  of  this  kingdom,  the 
peculiar  haze  or  smoky  fog  that  prevailed  for  many 
weeks  in  this  island,  and  in  every  part  of  Europe, 
and  even  beyond  its  limits,  was  a  most  extraordi- 
nary appearance,  unlike  anything  known  within  the 
memory  of  man.  By  my  journal  I  find  that  I  had 
noticed  this  strange  occurrence  from  June  23  to 
July  20  inclusive,  during  which  period  the  wind 
varied  to  every  quarter,  without  making  any  alter- 
ation in  the  air.  The  sun  at  noon  looked  as  blank 
as  a  clouded  moon,  and  shed  a  rust-coloured,  fer- 
ruginous light  on  the  ground  and  floors  of  rooms, 
but  was  particularly  lurid  and  blood-coloured  at 
rising  and  setting.  All  the  time  the  heat  was  so 
intense  that  butchers'  meat  could  hardly  be  eaten 
the  day  after  it  was  killed,  and  the  flies  swarmed  so 
in  the  lanes  and  hedges  that  they  rendered  the 
horses  half  frantic,  and  riding  irksome.  The  coun- 
try people  began  to  look  with  a  superstitious  awe 
at  the  red,  lowering  aspect  of  the  sun ;  and,  indeed, 
there  was  reason  for  the  most  enlightened  person 


332  NATURAL   HISTORY 

to  be  apprehensive,  for  all  the  while  Calabria  and 
part  of  the  Isle  of  Sicily  were  torn  and  convulsed 
with  earthquakes,  and  about  that  juncture  a  volcano 
sprung  out  of  the  sea  on  the  coast  of  Norway. 
On  this  occasion  Milton's  noble  simile  of  the  sun, 
in  his  first  book  of  Paradise  Lost,  frequently  oc- 
curred to  my  mind  ;  and  it  is  indeed  particularly 
applicable,  because  towards  the  end  it  alludes  to  a 
superstitious  kind  of  dread,  with  which  the  minds 
of  men  are  always  impressed  by  such  strange  and 
unusual  phenomena  : 

"  As  when  the  sun,  new  risen, 
Looks  through  the  horizontal  misty  air 
Shorn  of  his  beams;  or  from  behind  the  moon, 
In  dim  eclipse,  disastrous  twilight  sheds 
On  half  the  nations,  and  with  fear  of  change 
Perplexes  monarchs." 


LETTER     LXII. 

We  are  very  seldom  annoyed  with  thunder- 
storms ;  and  it  is  no  less  remarkable  than  true,  that 
those  which  arise  in  the  south  have  hardly  been 
known  to  reach  this  village ;  for  before  they  get 
over  us,  they  take  a  direction  to  the  east  or  to  the 
west,  or  sometimes  divide  into  two,  and  go  in  part 
to  one  of  those  quarters,  and  in  part  to  the  other, 
as  was  truly  the  case  in  summer,  1783,  when,  though 
the  country  round  was  continually  harassed  with 
tempests,  and  often  from  the  south,  yet  we  escaped 
them  all,  as  appears  by  my  journal  of  that  summer. 
The  only  way  that  I  can  at  all  account  for  this  fact 
— for  such  it  is — is,  that  on  that  quarter  between 


OF    SELBORNE.  333 

us  and  the  sea  there  are  continual  mountains,  hill 
behind  hill,  such  as  Nore  Hill,  the  Barnet,  Buster 
Hill,  and  Portsdown,  which  somehow  divert  the 
storms  and  give  them  a  different  direction.  High 
promontories  and  elevated  grounds  have  always 
been  observed  to  attract  clouds  and  disarm  them  of 
their  mischievous  contents,  which  are  discharged 
into  the  trees  and  summits  as  soon  as  they  come  in 
contact  with  those  turbulent  meteors ;  while  the 
humble  vales  escape,  because  they  are  so  far  be- 
neath them. 

But  when  I  say  I  do  not  remember  a  thunder- 
storm from  the  south,  I  do  not  mean  that  we  never 
have  suffered  from  thunder-storms  at  all ;  for  on 
June  5th,  1784,  the  thermometer  in  the  morning 
being  at  64°,  and  at  noon  at  70°,  the  barometer  at 
29  six  tenths  and  a  half,  and  the  wind  north,  I  ob- 
served a  blue  mist,  smelling  strongly  of  sulphur, 
hanging  along  our  sloping  woods,  and  seeming  to 
indicate  that  thunder  was  at  hand.  I  was  called  in 
about  two  in  the  afternoon,  and  so  missed  seeing 
the  gathering  of  the  clouds  in  the  north,  which  they 
who  were  abroad  assured  me  had  something  un- 
common in  its  appearance.  At  about  a  quarter  af- 
ter two  the  storm  began  in  the  parish  of  Harteley, 
moving  slowly  from  north  to  south,  and  from  thence 
it  came  over  Norton  farm,  and  so  to  Grange  farm, 
both  in  this  parish.  It  began  with  vast  drops  of 
rain,  which  were  soon  succeeded  by  round  hail,  and 
then  by  convex  pieces  of  ice  which  measured  three 
inches  in  girth.  Had  it  been  as  extensive  as  it  was 
violent,  and  of  any  continuance  (for  it  was  very 
short),  it  must  have  ravaged  all  the  neighbourhood. 
In  the  parish  of  Harteley  it  did  some  damage  to  one 


334  NATURAL    HISTORY 

farm ;  but  Norton,  which  lay  in  the  centre  of  the 
storm,  was  greatly  injured,  as  was  Grange,  which 
lay  next  to  it.  It  did  but  just  reach  to  the  middle 
of  the  village,  where  the  hail  broke  my  north  win- 
dows, and  all  my  garden-lights  and  hand-glasses, 
and  many  of  my  neighbours'  windows.  The  ex- 
tent of  the  storm  was  about  two  miles  in  length  and 
one  in  breadth.  We  were  just  sitting  down  to  din- 
ner ;  but  we  were  soon  diverted  from  our  repast 
by  the  clattering  of  tiles  and  the  jingling  of  glass. 
There  fell  at  the  same  time  prodigious  torrents  of 
rain  on  the  farms  above  mentioned,  which  occa- 
sioned a  flood  as  violent  as  it  was  sudden,  doing 
great  damage  to  the  meadows  and  fallows,  by  delu- 
ging the  one  and  washing  away  the  soil  of  the  oth- 
er. The  hollow  lane  towards  Alton  was  so  torn 
and  disordered  as  not  to  be  passable  till  mended, 
rocks  being  removed  that  weighed  two  hundred 
weight.  Those  that  saw  the  effect  which  the  great 
hail  had  on  ponds  and  pools,  say  that  the  dashing 
of  the  water  made  an  extraordinary  appearance, 
the  froth  and  spray  standing  up  in  the  air  three  feet 
above  the  surface.  The  rushing  and  roaring  of  the 
hail,  as  it  approached,  was  truly  tremendous. 

Though  the  clouds  at  South  Lambeth,  near  Lon- 
don, were  at  that  juncture  thin  and  light,  and  no 
storm  was  in  sight  nor  within  hearing,  yet  the  air 
was  strongly  electric;  for  the  bells  of  an  electric 
machine  at  that  place  rang  repeatedly,  and  fierce 
sparks  were  discharged. 

When  I  first  took  the  present  work  in  hand,  I 
proposed  to  have  added  an  Annus  Historico.natu- 
ralis,  or  the  Natural  History  of  the  Twelve  Months 
of  the  Year,  which  would  have  comprised  many 


OP    SELBORNE. 


335 


incidents  and  occurrences  that  have  not  fallen  into 
my  way  to  be  mentioned  in  my  series  of  letters ; 
but,  as  Mr.  Aiken,  of  Warrington,  has  lately  pub. 
lished  somewhat  of  this  sort,  and  as  the  length  of 
my  correspondence  has  sufficiently  put  your  pa- 
tience to  the  test,  I  shall  here  take  a  respectful 
leave  of  you  and  Natural  History  together. 

Sblborne,  Jane  25,  1787. 


THE    END. 


BHMHf 

,  .r.v 


CATALOGUE    OF   BOOKS. 

Harper  &  Brothers,  82  Cliff-street,  New- York, 
have  just  issued  a  new  and  complete  catalogue  of 
their  publications,  which  will  be  forwarded,  without 
charge,  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  upon  ap- 
plication to  them  personally  or  by  mail  post  paid. 
In  this  catalogue  may  be  found  over  one  thousand 
volumes,  embracing  every  branch  of  literature,  stand- 
ard and  imaginative.  The  attention  of  persons  form- 
ing libraries,  either  private  or  public,  is  particularly 
directed  to  the  great  number  of  valuable  standard 
historical  and  miscellaneous  works  comprised  in 
the  list.  It  will  also  be  found  to  contain  most  of 
the  works  requisite  to  form  a  circulating  library  of 
a  popular  character;  all  of  which  may  be  obtained 
at  reasonable  prices  (sixty  per  cent,  less  than  books 
published  in  England)  from  the  principal  booksellers 
throughout  the  United  States. 


